Wicked Love
by beingxwest
Summary: (LOVE SPELL AU): Sky planned on introducing Bloom as the girl he loved at the ball that night, but what if Diaspro cast a spell on him that changed everything? (CANON DIVERGENT)
1. Chapter One: Wicked Heartbreak

If Bloom wanted anything, it was some _sleep._ The pounding on her door told her two things, though, and one of them was that she would not be sleeping any longer. The other was that Stella was in one of her moods again, and that she was done waiting on Bloom to get herself out of bed.

Stella had dragged her out of bed every morning that week, insisting that there was an unreasonable amount of things to be done before their classes resumed the week after next. The list got longer every day, and the items on it somehow became more and more farfetched every morning.

This time, it was this: "Bloom, we have to do some redecorating!"

 _Redecorating?_ The fairy thought to herself. _We have two weeks before we have to start classes again and she wants to start_ redecorating? _Now?_ _Good grief._ She decided that her best friend was being completely ridiculous, but had no choice but to admit that her efforts to keep Bloom from spending as much time as possible (until she absolutely _had_ to start studying again) in bed were particularly spectacular.

"Bloom, I want _you_ to be in charge of redecorating this place!" The blonde girl's voice was much louder now, though she sounded perfectly content. She hadn't yelled at the emotionally exhausted redhead once in the past week and a half. Considering her temper was usually short at best, it must've taken her some serious work to keep herself under control. Admirable. Really.

But not even that was enough to convince Bloom to put a smile on her face and force herself to get up.

Something dawned on the redhead, a veritable bucket of ice water dumped over her head. _Did she say she wanted_ me _to redesign the dorm?_ This thought inspired another: _Okay, so her tactics have certainly changed._

All week, Bloom had been woken up and handed a list of things Stella need help with or done. The pounding on her door was the result of her locking the door in an attempt to put off the inevitable. But now, Stella was asking her to do something herself--she did love to decorate, really, but now she was being asked to think for herself.

Another voice joined the blonde's, and the pounding on the door came to an abrupt halt. Even though they were whispering, the redhead picked up every word without issue. "Stel, maybe give her some space. She's still trying to get things figured out. She needs time. He broke her heart." _Flora,_ Bloom realized, sounded terribly worried about her.

Which only made her feel worse.

For one too-short minute, she curled deeper under the blankets piled on her bed, and allowed herself to feel full-on how bad she felt for doing this to her friends. And she did feel bad--it hurt that she was hurting them because of this.

But Flora was right: her heart _was_ broken.

A third person joined in the conversation. _Musa,_ Bloom realized. "Stella might have a point, Flora. Bloom's already spent four and a half days curled up in the bed, and she only returned to the land of the living because we got her to get up. Giving up isn't going to help her any. If anything, we should be strong and drag her outta bed anyway, because we can't let her give up either."

 _Giving up..._ _Have I given up? Is_ that _what I'm doing?_ _No,_ she told herself. _That is_ not _what I'm doing._ With that, Bloom huffed, rolled onto her side, and shoved herself upright.

Maybe she was absolutely miserable. Okay, yeah, fine--she was totally miserable, and even getting out of bed required a monumental amount of effort at this point. She was so heartbroken, and exhausted from crying half the night and wondering _why? why? why? why her instead of me?_ and all sorts of other unhealthy questions, that she didn't have the energy to do much of anything.

But Sky--she pressed down on the bed, fisting the sheet in one hand, ignoring the pain that stabbed through her at his name--had made his choice.

So, she had a choice to make, too. And she had the dragon-flame and a temperament to match. Which meant that she wasn't going to let him win this--he didn't get to do this to her, just because he ran off with Diaspro, just because he didn't seem to love her the way that she loved him.

No. _No_ , he did _not_.

Bloom let go of the sheet and shoved the blankets off of her. She rolled out of the bed.

And, somehow, somehow, even as her team--her sisters in every way--continued to quietly whisper just on the other side of the door, she found a way to find a clean pair of her dancing clothes--black leggings that were a little too long, and bunched up above the tight part around her ankle, and a black t-shirt that said " ** _GIRL POWER_** " in huge letters--and some running shoes.

And promised herself that today, she would be okay.

·§·§·§·

Stella could have cried at the sight of Bloom slipping out of her room and quietly closing the door behind her.

Her and Flora had been whispering about what _in the name of everything in Magix City_ they were supposed to do about Bloom's unwillingness to get out of bed, Musa's eyes sharp as daggers and carefully observing the two of them, when the redhead in question had proved them wrong.

She was dressed in black and her shirt said " ** _GIRL POWER_** " and the glance that Musa threw at her said exactly what she was thinking--that was enough of a first step, enough of a step that she had made on her own, for the Solarian fairy to lean back against the wall and let out a breath it felt like she'd been holding for weeks.

"Hey, guys," Bloom said. Her voice sounded tired, but real, and was a stark contrast to the paleness of her face and circles under her eyes. There was endearment in her tone--as much of a thank you or acknowledgement of the situation as they would be getting from her for the time being--but it was enough. It was hardly the Bloom that they knew and adored, but it would be enough for right now.

Flora's face brightened instantly at hearing Bloom talk without being dragged into it by Stella. The nature fairy reached out and took Bloom's hands in hers. The look Musa and Stella shared said that they both would've said something about Flora's near-maternal sense had they not felt like doing the same. "How'd you sleep?"

"Okay, I guess." Her response was totally lacking (in every way) and, not for the first time, Stella was glad that Aisha had dragged Techna to a Magix Tech Incorporated conference downtown. They were staying at the hotel the conference was being held at, calling every night to apologize for their absence and ask for updates on Bloom and assignments and see if they could weasel anything more than three-word responses out of the Dragon-Flame wielding princess. Stella hated being glad they were gone, but the two of them being around Bloom at a time like this would probably do more damage than good. Techna would be confused by the two-steps-forward-one-step-back pattern of heartbreak--though no fault of her own, she was on a different plane of thought than they were, and Bloom would feel awful for upsetting her--and Aisha's heart was still raw from everything that had happened before she had come to Alphea, as well as the disasters that had unfolded afterwards.

 _At least she's talking,_ the look Flora gave her said. The hope in her eyes was unfaltering. Stella knew that Flora was right, but the light inside her burned and coiled and yearned to snap because of the circumstances.

Sky had hurt her best friend.

Everything had fallen to bits after Sky had chosen Diaspro. Techna could barely be around Bloom or Stella period, and Flora had cried more than anyone, her heart breaking for the broken hearts of those closest to her. Stella couldn't speak to Brandon without the words she had whispered to him, then shouted, the last time they talked replaying in her head.

" _Did you know? Did you_ know

 _"Know_ what _?" He had asked her, wiping away a tear on her face._ _It was a silly question, but he was as hurt as she was, and she knew that, looking back. That was his best friend, his brother, that had done that, and what was he supposed to do about it?_

 _She had recoiled, though, away from him. "Did you know he would do this to her?"_

Brandon hadn't met her eyes, but she never got a straight answer.

That had been enough, really. She hadn't needed him to tell her what happened--maybe he hadn't known, and maybe it wouldn't make a difference if he had, not even if he had warned her.

Some part of her knew that it would have been worse if she'd seen Sky's betrayal coming--she never would've had the words to tell Bloom what was going on, and would have been left with the knowledge that she couldn't stop her best friend from getting hurt. Watching everything happen, while actually knowing the outcome... Unimaginable.

And maybe Brandon had felt the same thing--if he had known, anyway.

Stella shook her head. No amount of picturing what could have gone differently was going to change what had happened. Even if she hadn't been able to look her boyfriend in the eye since it happened.

She idly wondered if Sky and Brandon were still getting along. If maybe Brandon had been hurt that his best friend would make such a big--and, quite frankly, ridiculous--decision without at least giving him a heads up.

Brandon could be as hot-headed as Stella sometimes, and he was (probably) incredibly angry--so the answer was a resounding _probably not._

Musa's voice pulled Stella from her thoughts. "What do you think, blondie?"

"I didn't hear--"

"Do you want to order some takeout, and watch a movie, maybe?" Bloom asked, earnest and kind as she'd ever been in her life. _An apology we don't deserve,_ the Solarian reminded herself, even as she beamed and said, "Of course!"

Flora and Musa nodded their own agreements in response, and pulled Bloom over to sit on the couch. Stella turned on her heel and headed to find the takeout menus and figure out where she'd left her phone after her morning trip to Alphea's gym.

If it would get some life back into Bloom's eyes, some strength back into her shoulders, the blonde princess would be happy to at least order lunch.


	2. Chapter Two: Wicked Fear

The memory of stepping up on to the dais for the royal family kept replaying in his head. He'd been so happy-so, so, _so_ happy.

He was finally going to introduce the girl that he loved to the court. To his kingdom, his people. His family.

 _He was welcomed on stage by his father's chief advisor, who was charged with overseeing the court. "And now," the man called, "the Crown Prince, Sky, with a few words to open up this evening's festivities!"_

 _Sky shook the advisor's hand, thanked him. He turned to the crowd as the man stepped around him to stand next to the King. "Thank you all for coming!" He paused as the crowd cheered-he could've kept talking, but they wouldn't have heard him anyway. It was the ball that celebrated his being the Crown Prince-his true and proper introduction as the heir-and the party was just getting started. That was good, in a lot of ways, and it meant that the kingdom were proud to see him when they looked toward the future._

 _That thought made him stand up a little straighter. A more even note of confidence came into his voice._

 _He met Bloom's eyes in the crowd, smiled-and it was just for her, only ever for her, but there were more cheers from the crowd. Brandon's voice echoed in his mind: "Oh, please-the girls are really going to love you!"_

 _And then the world seemed to fall out from underneath his feet._

 _Sky was speaking, but he wasn't sure what he was saying. His voice echoed in his ears, which had started ringing on top of that, and his vision was fuzzy._ What the-?

 _He couldn't finish his own thought, though, because a sudden wave of nausea rolled over him. The words kept coming, though, and then-_

 _And then Diaspro-_ Diaspro? Where did she come from _?-was walking up on stage next to him, and there was Bloom's fiery bright red hair across the room-_

 _What had he said?_

He realized, after the party, after he'd watched the rest of the Winx all but drag Bloom from the ballroom, that it had been the result of a spell.

He'd seen her. Crying. Tears running down her face, messing up the makeup that Stella had painstakingly applied that morning. She looked so surprised, so caught off guard. All Sky could think about was what she looked like when she was mad-her face would turn bright pink when they had stupid fights, when she was really mad, but then...

She was just _pale_. Like someone had drained all the color from her face. All the fire, all the power, that she was... And the tears were just running down her face.

It had been as if his feet were literally rooted to the floor. Sky had wanted more than anything to go to her, to wrap his arms around her, to tell her that he loved her and whatever he'd said-because he still hadn't been sure, even after Diaspro had led him from the stage like a child-wasn't him, wasn't real. Wasn't what he meant. Wasn't what he wanted. His body wasn't cooperating with him, though. No matter what he wanted-to step a certain way, to yank his arm from Diaspro's grasp, to order someone to _arrest her_ -his body was no longer obeying him.

And yet... No one had noticed. He'd laughed at jokes he hadn't heard, talked about the things he wanted to do first after his coronation (what had come out of his mouth was not _hi_ s agenda, no-it was Diaspro's), and told stories about the budding relationship between him and the blonde sorceress that had never happened. Her magic was good, though, because not one of the party's guests-not one of his own men-had become aware of the panic developing inside him. That he'd said he was in love with the _wrong_ girl. That he'd broken the _right_ girl's heart. Something clenched in his chest whenever the look on Bloom's face crept back into his mind.

It was much worse than that, though, because if no one noticed... How was he supposed to break the spell when he couldn't even walk the way he wanted?

·§·§·§·

Immediately after the ball, Diaspro had slid her arm through his and led him to a room upstairs in the palace.

He recognized it as a waiting room for visiting diplomats that needed to meet with his father or another member of the court or the Council. There were plenty of couches and small end tables bearing water jugs and glasses around the room. The jugs were only filled when the chief of staff scheduled the room for something, though. _How long has she been planning this?_

The blonde suddenly turned, shoving him backwards. He fell onto the couch clumsily, but found that he was able to right himself. Just barely, because he was still so _dizzy_ , but it was enough. Maybe he could even-"What do you think you're doing?" The words tumbled out before he could stop them.

"I'm getting what I want." The smile on her face was the one she'd given him since he'd met her so many years ago. He'd always thought it made her look polite. Now that the fogginess had began to recede from his mind, he thought it made her look predatory.

A graceful animal bearing her teeth.

"What is it that you want?" So she could take over his facilities when she wanted, then. He kept making mental notes, if only to keep himself calm enough to think. His mind would become foggy when he lost control.

"I was supposed to marry you, Sky, and I plan on doing it."

The prince shook his head. "I don't love you." He didn't say it to be cruel-it was a fact. And he'd always felt awful for ending their betrothal that way, but he wanted to marry someone he loved. And that just wasn't her.

It seemed to be the wrong response, though, because her eyes became razor sharp. "So? People like us don't have the luxury of getting what we love. Better you figure that out now." Her gaze flicked to the door, then back to him. "If love is what you want..."

 _Oh, no. What did I-? What is that supposed to-?_

His train of thought was cut off when she finished her sentence. "Stay here. If anyone comes in, we were in here looking for some peace and quiet, but I left to go talk to my parents, and should be right back. Tell them to leave you alone."

Sky could feel her words locking in his mind-he didn't feel any different, but he knew without a doubt that if anyone came in here, he would follow her instructions to the letter whether or not he wanted to. He literally wouldn't be able to stop himself.

At one point, he'd done (and led) drills with his team from Red Fountain-flown entire airships within actual feet of a _mountain-_ and his hands had never trembled.

Now, he felt like he was going to throw up, and if Diaspro hadn't been in such control of his reflexes-he was sure that his composure was entirely her doing-he was positive that he would've been shaking.

It was an alarming thought. A terrible feeling. A _new_ feeling, and one he didn't like.

Another thought popped into his head. _Where is she going?_ Fear as cold as ice shot up his spine. "What are you going to-?"

"You said that you wanted to marry for love, didn't you?" Something cruel flashed across her face. She stood up straighter. "That can be arranged."


	3. Chapter Three: Wicked Change

The week ended, and Bloom did end up redecorating the dorm, to some degree.

New curtains. Some new furniture, here and there. Brighter colors. The living room became a more airy, open space, and Flora adored it. She opened the curtains every morning, and then the windows too, as long as it wasn't raining.

And Stella should've been happy with that. It was enough progress that she should've been satisfied.

But she wasn't-maybe she was the only one that could literally _feel_ the anger and the pain simmering underneath Bloom's skin, but she knew that Bloom wasn't pulling herself together. She was just getting better at acting like she was. And Stella wasn't sure how the other Winx didn't feel the rage that their friend and leader was doing so much to try to bury, but they never came to her and said that anything was wrong.

Not even Musa.

There was constantly music playing in the apartment, though, now-Musa had realized early on that 'silence' just meant 'the opportunity to get lost thinking about your problems' and since she'd caught Bloom curled up on the couch, sobbing in the quiet, there had been music everywhere. It changed based on the taste and mood of whoever was in a room at a given time, too. Stella wasn't quite sure how she'd set up the spell, but it had been incredibly complex. It might have taken her hours to do one room, and a couple of days to do the entire place.

Stella shook her head. She took another bite of the sandwich she was eating, and then took another look around the room. Techna was fiddling with the TV, trying to make the Magix technology work with the DVD player that Bloom had brought from home. Aisha was engrossed in a novel, and Bloom was chatting with Musa and Flora-really talking, laughing at all the right moments and saying all the right things, even if Stella really didn't think it reached her eyes.

Techna and Aisha had gotten back about two hours after the redecorating was finally done. They opened the door to find the other members of the Winx Club showered and changed into clean clothes, laying on chairs and couches and everyone but Stella fast asleep. Musa had woken up, said something sarcastic about how of course they got back as soon as they were done with all the heavy lifting, and then fallen right back to sleep. The others hadn't even stirred.

Stella took the opportunity to go with Techna and Aisha to the room that they shared and give them the run-down of what had happened while they were gone. She helped them unpack too, putting clothes on hangers while explaining that, no, she didn't know why Bloom's boyfriend had changed his mind so quickly and without warning.

After the Solarian princess finished her story, Aisha and Techna didn't seem to know what to say. The three of them worked in a comfortable silence for long enough that some of the tension in Stella's shoulders began to disappear. It was good that Aisha was back-she'd been through enough that she knew what Bloom needed.

She also knew what Stella needed-some help.

They finished cleaning out Techna's suitcase, moved on to Aisha's. There were a few more minutes of silence, and then Aisha ventured, "Are you sure it was him?"

"What do you mean?" As she spoke, her grip on the dress she was holding tightened. The question had caught her off guard. Stella was certain that had been the intent-the best way to weasel a real answer out of her was to get it when she wasn't expecting it, according to Musa.

Techna was the one who explained. "What I think Aisha means it that Sky is, like, in love with Bloom. Even I can see that. Why would he choose to throw that away?" Techna pulled one of Aisha's shirts from the suitcase and grabbed a hanger. "He does have a large sense of honor and duty, though. His father might have had something to do with it."

Aisha crossed the room to where they were stacking up the stuff that went in the bathroom. She added her makeup bag to the pile before turning back to them and saying, "I spent all week thinking about it, and I just don't think he would do this to Bloom. I mean, have you seen the way he looks at her? Musa used to say all the time that they were so in love it hurt to look at them. Why would he do that to her if he loved her?"

This was a new angle to look at, Stella knew. The only problem was that it was giving her a headache. "Before he did it, I never thought he would be capable of it." She didn't meet her friends' eyes. "I just don't think that it matters now. What's done is... Well, it's done."

Aisha pulled the dress from her fingers and slid it onto a hanger. Stella had really forgotten she was holding it, hadn't she? _Wow. Maybe I do need some sleep. Maybe that would help._

Another silence fell over them as they contemplated that thought. Would it be better to have a reason for what Sky did? Or better just to forget he ever happened to Bloom in the first place? What effect would their choice have on Bloom?

Stella just didn't know. She didn't know what to do.

She hated feeling so helpless.

The door opened slowly. It didn't creak, but it did bump into the wall, and all three of them jumped.

Musa stepped into the room, eyes apologetic but face tomato red. She was holding the living room remote in her left hand, her right still resting on the door. Through her teeth, she said, "Turn on the TV."

Techna's eyebrows shot up. She moved to the TV and pressed the power button anyway. When it finally came on, it was on the music channel they'd been listening to as they packed a week before. She turned down the volume to keep it from waking the others before looking at Musa for some instruction. The music fairy, who had closed the door behind her and was now leaning up against it, said nothing. She wasn't even looking at them.

"What channel, M?" Aisha prompted.

"Magix News." She sounded livid, but exhausted. Like maybe she had figured out what Stella had, and she had kept it to herself too.

The news was on a commercial break when Techna found the channel for it. Even so, all of them watched with rapt attention as they waited for it to return.

And when it did, Stella was sure the floor had been snatched from beneath her feet.

Sky and Diaspro-the platinum blonde girl that Sky had been betrothed to before he broke it off to be with Bloom, and whom he'd declared was the love of his life at the ball last week instead of Bloom-were sitting on a love seat opposite Cora Harper, the most famous reporter in Magix.


	4. Chapter Four: Wicked Anger

Brandon was fuming.

" _Welcome back, ladies and gents, I'm Cora Harper coming to you live from Eraklyon, which you better believe is a ways away from home. I'm here with Eraklyon's one and only crown prince, who_ "-she winked conspiratorially at the camera-" _has been quite the heartthrob lately, and Princess Diaspro, his fiancee_." The reporter turned to face them a little more, settling into her seat for the interview.

He could've thrown something at the TV. The stupid reporter's voice was high pitched and annoying. The so-called happy couple-at least according to the words flashing across the bottom of the screen: **Happy Couple from Eraklyon's First Press Interview Following Engagement** -couldn't keep their hands off each other. Diaspro was a few inches and a generous camera angle away from being in his best friend's lap.

" _So, my first question is for you, Prince Sky. Everyone knows you've been dating Bloom, the leader of Alphea's own Winx Club_." A picture of Bloom popped into the top left hand corner of the screen, her name in bold letters below it. She was smiling, but a little red in the face, and she was still in her fairy form. Brandon guessed it was from a post-mission interview a few months ago, because the Winx had achieved a new transformation recently enough that the news network wouldn't have a more up-to-date picture. Cora Harper looked at the camera again. " _For those of you who don't know, Bloom and the Winx have been protecting Alphea and the other students there since their first year. They've been named Guardian Fairies of their home planets and the school, and they haven't even graduated yet. However, they work with Red Fountain's own Specialists rather frequently, and it's no secret that that's how Prince Sky and Bloom got their start._ " She turned back to Sky and Diaspro. " _This was rather sudden, even I must admit, and so my question is this: how did this happen? What brought the two of you back together? And, if you'll excuse my being frank, why did you choose to propose to Diaspro, when it's common knowledge that you broke off your betrothal for the leader of the Winx Club?_ "

He paused the TV. There was no way that he was going to be able to watch all of this in one shot.

A voice from behind where he was sitting on the couch said, "She looks a little angry, doesn't she?" He turned to see Riven joining him on the couch, bowl of cereal in hand, spoon clacking against the bottom of the bowl as he ate.

Brandon knew what Riven meant without even glancing at the TV-Diaspro's eyes were a little narrowed, her posture a little too stiff. To anyone who didn't know her, it might have looked natural, but the dark-haired Specialist had spent far too long keeping an eye on her and Sky as they grew up. He knew what her angry face was.

"I can imagine she's pretty mad, since all Cora Harper wants to talk about is Bloom," Riven continued. "It's sort of ironic, considering she wants to be the center of attention."

Brandon turned to look at Riven so fast that his neck popped. "What do you mean?"

Riven raised his eyebrows and shoveled another bite of his breakfast into his mouth. A minute later, he said by way of explanation, "It's her body language." He took another bite of cereal. Brandon must have still been glaring at him, though, because he added, "She's all over him. She wants them to look at her on him, yeah, but she wants them to see more of her than him."

"She's always been like that." Brandon muttered. "Always looking for ways to make herself the star of the show." His voice sounded more exhausted than he'd meant for it to.

There was a brief silence, and Brandon rested his head against the back of the couch. He wondered how bad he must've looked to be getting sympathy from Riven of all people-he'd expected sarcasm, a little raw anger. Not the little bit of kindness that was in the other Specialist's eyes.

Riven sat his bowl of cereal, now empty, on the coffee table in front of them. "Musa and I have been talking some." Brandon's eyebrows shot up-maybe Riven really felt so bad that he was trying to make some small talk? It was common knowledge that the music fairy was sort of miffed at Riven right now, and even though that wasn't exactly headline news (it happened a lot-they were constantly on and off), Brandon was beginning to suspect that Riven was a little sick of it. That he wanted more than the on-again-off-again thing that they'd been doing.

Well, that had really been Sky's suspicion. Brandon just agreed with it.

"Wipe that look off your face, that isn't what I meant." Riven's eye roll was nearly audible. "She called me to ask me what Sky was thinking, doing that, and to tell me that Bloom is a raging disaster. She's acting fine, but Musa thinks it's fake. She spent a week crying in bed before Stella finally snapped and started annoying her into getting up."

Something like a smile ghosted across Brandon's face-that sounded like the Stella he knew and loved.

"Apparently, Stella also made Bloom redecorate the entire apartment that the Winx shares," Riven chuckled before his tone became even more serious. "Anyway, it's not good, and Musa wants answers."

"We _all_ want answers." Brandon shook his head. "He didn't tell me. Not about any of it."

Riven's eyes widened. "You're his best friend. He calls you his brother when he talks about you, you know that? Why wouldn't he tell you?"

"The answer to that question, Riven, is apparently beyond me, because I just can't seem to figure it out." He paused, and then decided to keep going. "I've been trying to get a hold of him for days. Texts. Phone calls. Emails. I went to the palace a few days ago, and when I finally managed to get through the guards to see him, he told me that he didn't want to see anyone but Diaspro anymore. Not his friends. Not his family. Only her."

It actually was a lot worse than that, but he chose to leave the other part out unless Riven asked.

The memory played, for the millionth time, through his mind.

 _"Sky, are you out of your mind? I'm your best friend. We learned to throw punches together. We've done everything together since we were ten, and now you don't care about anyone but her? Not even your_ brother _?" The word had been meant to draw out an emotional response-he'd wanted it to hurt Sky the way that Sky had hurt him. Not telling him anything, and now turning his back on him?_

 _Ridiculous. It didn't matter. He wasn't going down without a fight._

 _Sky didn't get to do this to him without feeling it, too._

 _"You aren't my brother. If you were, you'd stop trying to take her away from me!"_

 _Brandon had been so confused by what his best friend meant that he had even seen the fist coming at his face._

 _Sky had hit him._

 _So Brandon had hit him back._

 _And later that night, after Diaspro's guards had thrown him out, and he was so bruised it hurt to move, and a few of his ribs might have been fractured from a well-timed hit that Sky had landed, he remembered what Sky had said to him once he was on the floor and barely conscious: "I don't ever want to see you in this city again,_ brother _."_

His ribs were fractured, it turned out, but the only visible bruises were ones that he could brush off as from hard training, as long as he wore sweats and a t-shirt. And as long as he used the healing tonics and medication that the healers gave him when he returned to Red Fountain, he barely felt his injuries, so no one else noticed.

"That's... weird, isn't it?"

"Yeah, Riven, it's pretty weird." Brandon's voice was a whisper. He reached for the remote and hit play.

 _"I've always loved Diaspro. As long as I can remember, I was hopelessly in love with her, and I broke off our engagement because I never thought that I would deserve to marry her. I was always so sure that she could find better, as long as she looked."_ Sky sounded so earnest, so sure of himself, but what he was saying... It just wasn't true. Brandon would know that better than anyone. _"What Bloom and I had wasn't real. I deserve better than her, really, and Diaspro has opened my eyes to that."_ He paused, then chuckled lightly, looking at the blonde girl next to him. _"She's always opening my eyes to things, isn't she?"_

Brandon went for the remote-he was maybe planning on throwing it at the TV-but Riven got it before he could, and paused it just before Diaspro began to speak. "Throwing things is not going to make this better."

Those were words that Sky had said to Riven a million times, especially when their team was formed, and Brandon knew then that he was not the only one lost or confused without his best friend.

"Why don't we go to Alphea? We can check on Bloom, and you and Stella and me and Musa can chat. And then we can discuss _that_." Riven pointed emphatically at the TV. "Because I have a sinking feeling that none of that 'I've been hopelessly in love with her as long as I can remember' is true."

"It really, really isn't." Brandon confirmed. "He hated her growing up. Thought she was a snake who just wanted power."

Riven's eyes widened again. His mouth fell open, his sharp inhale audible. Brandon looked behind him on instinct to see what it was that had caused Riven's surprise, but found nothing.

The red-headed Specialist leaped from the couch, bumping into the coffee table and nearly sending the empty bowl flying. He ran to the office in the apartment that their team shared. He threw the door open, not bothering to shut it behind him.

When he emerged a few minutes later to find Brandon still stunned and exactly where he'd left him on the couch, he was as pale as a sheet. The book that was open in his hands was trembling-his hands were shaking.

"What if she has him under a spell?"


	5. Chapter Five: Wicked Guilt

Stella had fallen asleep almost as soon as the interview was over.

Aisha felt terrible-her and Tecna should've been there for Bloom. Should've been there for Stella while she was being there for Bloom. Not at the tech conference, no matter how much Griselda had wanted them to go. _She would've understood,_ Aisha knew. _She would've let us stay here for Bloom. To help Stella remember to take care of herself, too._

"You know that what you're doing is rather unproductive, yes?"

The Androsian princess looked up to find Tecna standing next to the chair she'd pulled up by Stella's bed. "What are you doing in here, Tec?" Her voice was sleepy and a little rough from the crying her and Stella had been doing earlier, from as soon as Cora Harper had signed off the interview and until the blonde fairy had dozed off. She had a nasty feeling that Tecna wasn't going to be convinced by whatever attempt she made to hide it, so she didn't bother.

The technology-wielding fairy took a seat in front of her. Where she was normally all sharp edges and careful precision, she unceremoniously plopped herself onto the floor. _We're all exhausted,_ Aisha thought. Tecna looked at her for a long moment and said, "Sitting in a dark room and telling yourself that we should never have gone to that conference isn't going to get anything done." Aisha cocked her head to the side and raised her eyebrows. Tecna took the gesture for what it meant and siad, "Yes, I _know_ it isn't dark outside, but the curtains are closed and the lights are off in here, and it's dark." There was humor in her voice. Her words weren't half as clipped as they usually were, and Aisha wondered, not for the first time, how Tecna felt about the entire situation. She'd become much better at expressing her emotions over the last year, but some things still were a little foreign to her, and Aisha was curious as to how she saw Bloom's reaction to what Sky had done.

"Flora and Musa are watching a movie with Bloom. They're worried that if they leave her in there, she might change the channel, and see a recap of the interview. That wouldn't be good." Tecna was more talking to herself by the time she was finished, but Aisha was glad for the update. "Flora said that if you and Stel want to come watch, you guys are welcome to, but she said that you guys shouldn't be alone if you didn't."

Aisha did not know how to put her gratitude into words-Tecna, who may not have always understood the feelings that made things so intense in their apartment, especially at times like this, had come to keep her company. Even if it was on Flora's suggestion, she still had-she had not questioned it, or remarked the lack of logic of the situation. She was being there for her, and that meant the entire world to her. Every world, and all of those worlds' moons.

"Thank you, Tec," she whispered, voice breaking. She prayed that the other fairy understood all that she meant by that. The tears had returned to her eyes without her noticing, and she wiped at them to keep them from running down her face. She wiped her hands off on her jeans.

Tecna reached up and took her hands. "You're welcome, Aisha. You're very welcome." She pulled her hands back and folded them in her lap. "This isn't our fault, you know. Sky would've done this no matter if we were there or not. And now... They're engaged. All anyone can do now is be there for her. And we're all doing that now."

The water princess shook her head, glancing at Stella's sleeping form in the dark. "Stella needs our help. She's been putting herself through so much. Musa told me that Stella hasn't been sleeping. She's been staying up half the night, almost every night, trying to figure out what happened. Trying to figure out how to fix it, how to be there for Bloom."

Tecna nodded her understanding. "That's what's bothering you, that's Stella's doing this to herself. You feel like if we'd been here, we could've taken some of the weight off of her."

"Yeah. Pretty much."

"That's not true. Stella is too headstrong for that. We could've been here the entire time and she still would be doing this. The only difference we would've made is two more voices telling her not to, two more people sitting on the couch and watching movies, two more people helping with the redecorating, two more people sending terrified looks at her. That's all we could've done anyway."

 _Tecna has a point,_ she reminded herself. _Stella wasn't listening to Musa or Flora. Why would we have made a difference? Just two more people to deal with? Maybe it's good enough that we're here now. That we're here and ready to help however we can, even if it's only making sure that no one else is alone._

"You're right." Aisha exhaled slowly, allowing the guilt-induced tension to leave her muscles with the breath. "You're right."

"I'm usually right, you know."

They both laughed-quietly, so they wouldn't wake up Stella, who truly needed some sleep-and fell into a companionable silence.

Not a scary, alone-with-your-thoughts silence, but a nice one.

O/O/O/O/O/O/O

 _BUZZZZZZ. BUZZZZZZZZ. BUZZZZZZZZZ._

"Aisha," someone said, _Tecna,_ shaking her shoulder, "Aisha, someone's phone is going off, we have to find it."

 _BUZZZZZZ. BUZZZZZZZZ. BUZZZZZZZZZ._

The sound shook her awake, and she knew why Tecna sounded so alarmed. It would wake Stella up if they couldn't-

 _BUZZZZZZ. BUZZZZZZZZ. BUZZZZZZZZZ._

There was a sudden bright light and Tecna shook her head. Aisha's eyes readjusted to see that it was only Tecna's phone in the dark of the room. _What time is it? Is it night already?_ "It's not mine." Her voice sounded rough-she'd been asleep, too.

The Androsian stood up, ignoring the head rush that followed, and blindly searched the chair she'd been sitting in for her phone. She found it, but it was silent.

By the time that it dawned on her that it was _Stella's_ phone, it had fallen silent.

Aisha glanced at her sleeping friend to make sure that she hadn't stirred, but she was still perfectly asleep.

"I hope that wasn't important." Tecna muttered. There was a shuffling sound as she plopped back down to the floor. She leaned against Stella's bed, and if the blonde fairy's phone had started ringing again, she probably would've tried to go back to sleep. She groaned.

"I've got it." Aisha turned her phone back on and tapped the flashlight symbol. Immediately, the room was a whole lot brighter. She looked across Stella's nightstand for the phone, which was still buzzing loudly enough to wake up half the apartment-and Stella was still sound asleep.

When she finally found it, she reached around the back of the chair she'd fallen asleep in, grabbed it, and answered it without looking by swiping across the screen.

"Hello?" Aisha ignored Tecna's whisper-shout in behind her: "That might be personal! You can't do that!" and repeated herself. "Hello? Who is this?"

"Is this Aisha?" The voice was male. It sounded familiar, but she was still too asleep to place it. "It's Brandon, I'm calling for Stella."

Tecna had moved closer so that she could hear what he was snickered behind her. "Of _course_ he's calling for Stella, he called her phone."

Aisha snorted in spite of herself, covered the phone's mic and said, "An astute observation indeed."

On the other end of the line, Brandon asked, worry seeping into his tone, "Where's Stella?"

"She's asleep. She's been putting herself through way too much over this, and it's not good for her. She needs rest." Aisha took pity on him-Stella had broken down the minute that the interview went off, and told her and Musa and Tecna exactly what had happened between her and Brandon in the process-but she wouldn't have woken her friend up for anyone. Not even him. And if he didn't understand that... "Can I tell her that you called?"

"Um, we're actually on our way to Alphea. Our team, and Codatorta and Saladin. We have a theory."

Tecna gasped, now beside her. "Does Faragonda know?"

Aisha chose to go with that line of questioning, instead of asking him to expand on their 'theory'. "Have someone sent word to Faragonda?"

"Headmaster Saladin did a few minutes ago. We're going to have to land in the Square, so she said she would have someone take down the wards."

Brandon was a Specialist-one of the best, Stella had explained, incredibly proud of her boyfriend-and they were taught to keep cool under pressure. Grace under fire. But even with that, there was panic in his voice-he was really, really worried, but about what?

Aisha covered the mic with her hand again, turning her head so that she could whisper in Tecna's ear. "It's something about Sky."

Tecna nodded, but said nothing.

Into the phone, Aisha said, "Did you tell Faragonda to-?"

She was interrupted by an abrupt knock on the front door of their dorm, followed by Griselda's voice. "Winx Club-Headmistress Faragonda needs you in her office as soon as possible!" Her tone wasn't as sharp as usual, and Aisha knew that it was bad, whatever this theory was-that was the only kindness Griselda would show, but it was enough to know that she pitied Bloom. That she pitied the rest of them.

Tecna pulled the phone from her hand. "Brandon, it's Tecna. Listen-we were just summoned to Headmistress Faragonda's office. I assume that's where you guys are headed, so we'll meet you there." With her free hand, she motioned to Aisha, pointing at her and then the still-asleep blonde.

Aisha got the message and stepped back towards the bed as Tecna offered a polite, "See you in a few minutes in Faragonda's office!" and ended the call. She probably cut Brandon off, but they really didn't have time to wait anyways.

"Stella, you have to get up," she said, shaking her shoulder. "We have to go downstairs." Stella twisted away from her and whispered something that sounded a lot like "So go then." Aisha rolled her eyes. She felt bad, but continued, voice firmer, "Something's wrong, Stel. We have to go."

That got her attention. She jumped upright, and then scrambled to her feet. Tecna managed to grab her before she hit the floor. "Get dressed. We've got to get moving."

Tecna's tone was not unkind, but was firm enough that Stella went to her closet immediately.

There was another knock, this time on Stella's bedroom door. "Guys, we've got to go!" Musa's voice shouted. "Stella, drop the makeup, let's get moving!"

"We're working on it, Muse," Tecna yelled back, matching Musa's tone for irritation. "We'll be out in a minute!"

Aisha looked over to make sure that Tecna was okay to go downstairs. Her shirt was rumpled, but she was otherwise presentable. "Tec," she whispered, "your shirt." As Tecna straightened out her clothes, she gave Aisha the same up-and-down glance, and then motioned for her to straighten out her clothes as well.

Stella raced back over to them, then, pulling a clean shirt over her head. "What happened?"

The dark-haired fairy stepped towards her to help, but then thought better of it as Stella finished with her clothes-she probably wouldn't take well to the assistance. She raced back to her closet, presumably for a pair of shoes. Upon her return, she had boots on-which she was zipping up as she walked-and she asked her question again. "What happened?"

"We'll explain on the way." Tecna said, rushing them both out of Stella's room and into the living room, where the others were waiting. Flora looked like she'd been working on some makeup art on her arm-a floral vine that ran from her wrist to her sleeve on her left arm-and the makeup covering the right side and sleeve of Musa's long-sleeve shirt implied that she had been helping her. Bloom had a full face of makeup, like she was going out. Or, more likely, like Flora had done her makeup before starting on her arm.

"Let's get going, Winx," Stella smiled. She threw a grin around the room, met everyone's eyes, and then crossed the room to throw an arm around Bloom's shoulders. "Let's get a move on!"

From right behind the two of them, Aisha could see how pale they both looked, and how much Bloom leaned on Stella.

"She knows," Aisha near-silently whispered to Tecna. "I don't know how, but she knows."


	6. Chapter Six: Wicked Surrender

Sky wasn't quite sure what was happening.

He'd been falling in and out of consciousness. He had no idea what time it was, how long he'd been there like that.

How long _had_ he been there?

He'd been locked in his room in his chambers in the palace-or maybe _locked_ was the wrong word. _Locked_ implied that he needed to be prevented from escaping, didn't it? No, not locked-he couldn't even get up. There was no need to lock the door if he wasn't even able to get to it.

The prince wasn't sure how he was still alive. He hadn't eaten or had anything to drink since he'd become so lethargic, but he never felt hungry or thirsty. Every time he opened his eyes and blearily glared at the walls of the room that he was now trapped in, he had new bruises. New aches. He wasn't sure why, because he didn't remember getting hurt.

Well, okay, that wasn't completely true.

Brandon had come to see him. To tell him he was acting stupid. Sky remembered that (only in pieces, not even entire sentences, but he knew that it had happened). Vaguely remembered him launching himself at his best friend, and his best friend hitting him back, but couldn't remember why. Neither of them would ever do that to each other, though, so the 'why' of the situation probably didn't matter all that much.

Sky was beginning to think-during rare moments of coherency-that this was Diaspro's doing.

The other thing that Sky remembered was dressing for an interview on a morning show. He'd argued with Diaspro about it, told her that he didn't want to be her puppet on TV too-he knew what she was doing. That she had control over him, whether he liked it or not.

He'd expected her to turn around and walk towards the door and for his feet to move (without his telling them to). For a smile (that he didn't like) to put itself on his face and his posture to relax (despite his anger).

Instead, Sky had found himself being thrown across the room with a wave of the blonde princess's hand.

Sky was pulled from his thoughts by the door to his room opening. He hadn't heard the lock turn, and he didn't think that he'd missed it-it really wasn't locked, then.

That's how helpless he was-Diaspro didn't even bother locking the door. She had ensured that he was trapped inside his own body, even if the door was wide open.

The thought was nauseating, and his stomach churned. A pounding headache came out of nowhere, causing him to cry out in pain as the blonde princess took the seat beside him.

She sat there, observing him, a predator playing with her food, for several minutes. The throbbing of his skull became so bad that tears began to roll down his cheeks. The pain spread down to his shoulders, his torso, his waist, his legs, and then his entire body was engulfed in nothing but pain.

He heard screaming, almost far away, and realized that it was him.

And then he blacked out.

·§·§·§·

When Sky came to, his entire body hurt.

He was sore, like he'd spent far too long awake and training and working, like a mission gone wrong at Red Fountain. That had happened once, two years before, and the Specialist team he led had gotten lost in a forest on a planet of plants that could eat a person whole. They'd had to fight their way out (and stay alive in the process) and he'd been in such pain and so exhausted that he slept for a solid three days after all of the Specialists were released from the infirmary and allowed to return to their apartment in the dorms.

Even that pain was no match for this, though. Everything hurt. Thinking. Breathing. _Existing_. Everything _hurt._

He tried to do a mental catalog of his injuries, but the dull throbbing (which he suspected was only dull because of how asleep he still was) told him that these were not injuries he was feeling. Diaspro hadn't physically harmed him, he didn't think.

It just felt like she had.

He shook his head (the pain of even that small motion was enough that his vision became blurry again), trying to dislodge the memory of the fire that felt as if it were burning him alive from the inside out.

And fear-he was so, so _afraid_.

How long had he been like this? How long had he been trapped here, her prisoner? How much longer would this go on?

 _What if I'm like this for the rest of my life?_

His heart rate picked up. He could hear the pounding of his heartbeat in his ears, and with every beat, another wave of pain ran through him. He was shaking-shaking because this sorceress had put him under a spell that trapped him inside himself, unable to do so much as move without her permission, and again: _oh, no, what if I am trapped like this for the rest of my life-_

"Don't worry, Your Highness," a voice said from the other side of the room. "It won't be nearly as bad when you wake up."

His eyes widened. That was Diaspro. She _had_ done this to him.

"You-you-" He didn't manage to choke out more than that. Everything _hurt_.

She readjusted the many folds of her skirt. Came to sit in the chair beside his bed. Fixed her skirts again, folded her hands in her lap. "I'm going to marry you, Your Highness. You already proposed and everything."

He could see the glimmer of the ring on her finger.

It was nauseating.

"I'm going to be your queen."

"You won't-"

His argument was cut short by a flash of pain. There was a scream-him, he realized, after a minute.

"When you wake up, it won't be nearly such an issue. We'll be happy and in love like we've always been." Her eyes were almost warm as she spoke.

He'd never loved her. Not like that.

He'd done the right thing by ending their engagement. Had made her free to find someone to love her the way that he loved Bloom.

Bloom. Oh, Bloom-where was she? Did she know what had happened? Did she know that he loved her?

 _She_ _can't come here._ As much as Sky would've loved for her and the Winx to come to his aide, to get him out of this and break this stupid spell, he knew that Bloom couldn't do that. She was powerful. Probably much more so than Diaspro, but a fight between the two of them could've been catastrophic.

And if she found out, she would come for him. That was the kind of person that she was. The kind of relationship that they had.

If Bloom wasn't paying attention... _Diaspro could hurt her_.

"Leave-leave her alone, Diaspro."

The Princess of Gems knew what he meant. "Are you saying that if I leave your precious fairy out of this..." She examined her nails for a moment, twisting her hand so that the polish that covered them could catch the light. "You'll let the spell do it's work?"

He didn't want to know what that meant. "Fine," he coughed. Was that blood staining his lips? "Yes. Fine."

Sky didn't know how he was supposed to make sure she kept her word, but he forced himself to relax. To breathe.

And when the darkness began to slide over his vision, he didn't fight that either.

·§·§·§·

Sky loved her so much.

She was so beautiful-platinum blonde hair, bright eyes, a smile that was all teeth. The ring on her finger-that diamond, way too much for anyone else, but perfect for the princess that she was-made her so much more beautiful.

Because _she_ was marrying _him_.

He'd proposed a few days after telling his family and everyone at the ball that he loved her. They'd done a TV interview, and he'd told their whole kingdom and Magix and everywhere else, and that night, when they were done, he'd gotten down on one knee and all but begged her to marry him.

He would've begged her to marry him, if that's what it took. He knew that.

He needed her-he didn't know how he'd lived without her before. How he'd been stupid enough to break off their betrothal for some other girl when they'd been in love their whole lives.

Some other girl. Even the thought hurt-he couldn't even remember that girl's name. Or the color of her eyes. All he could come up with when he thought of her was a flash of bright red hair, a set of fingers tangled with his. And that he'd chosen that over Diaspro.

It was laughable. How stupid he'd been.

And then Brandon had come to talk him out of it. What kind of friend did that make Sky's best friend? Trying to talk him out of marrying the woman that he loved. That was ridiculous. He never would've done that to Brandon.

Brandon was probably jealous. That was the only plausible explanation.

"Are you ready to go, Your Highness?" a voice said from behind him.

He whirled, the smile already glowing on his face, to see Diaspro standing in the doorway. "Of course." He looked her up and down, and good grief, she was beautiful. The Princess of Gems lived up to her name-she was a jewel, a diamond, glittering in a silver dress that might have been been made from stars in itself. "Are you going to stop calling me that, though? I mean, we're getting married."

"Maybe I like the idea of you being king." She chuckled, crossing the room. Her heels clicked across the floor as she walked.

Sky turned in the mirror. The front of his uniform was almost right, but it wasn't perfect. The problem was that every time Sky moved his right hand to fix it, blinding pain flashed up his arm. Brandon had done that to him, he thought, during their fight.

Diaspro stepped in front of him. She adjusted the fabric so that it was even, straightened the medals across his chest. Her eyes remained on the medal that signified his royal position, her fingers running over the silver that composed it, as she whispered, "Maybe I like the idea of being your queen."

Her voice was low and sultry, but his stomach dropped.

 _She only wants to be Queen,_ something hissed in the back of his mind.

No. That couldn't be true. He loved her.

She loved him.

 _She loves your crown._ the voice said. _None of this is real. You know that._

Maybe he did know. Fine.

But when Diaspro kissed his cheek and looped her arm through his, he buried the knowledge as deep in the back of his mind as he could.


	7. Chapter Seven: Wicked Truth

_**Alright, guys, I promised this one would be longer... And it's nearly 4000 words. Wowza. That's a lot-I don't think I've ever written a chapter this long for anything.**_

 _ **I hope you enjoy, as always. We're back to Bloom's POV for this one. Let me know what you think!**_

Bloom knew something was weird.

She'd been doing her best to put Sky out of her mind. And, okay, fine-it hadn't been working super well, but it was a start.

(It hadn't really been working at all. The other Winx had been doing their best to distract her, and as long as she kept herself busy, she was almost fine. Not okay or fine or anywhere close, but she wasn't curled up in a corner. Sobbing on the floor. Too tired and emotionally exhausted to get out of bed. She was only a bit better than that, but it was something. Still... a color or a word or a story or place or joke was all it took to throw her back onto the emotional roller coaster.)

Everyone had been acting bizarrely the entire day. Ushering her away from the TV while movies were chosen. Tensing up during commercials. Almost foregoing the cable that Magix City offered in favor of the DVD player and movie collection that Bloom's parents had given her for the dorm when she'd first left. It was definitely strange, but maybe they were sick of being cooped up inside to look after her. Or maybe they were sick of her heartbroken-ness. Or maybe they were all just tired and not ready for the semester to begin and she was freaking out over nothing.

She chose to chalk it up to the last one-she was tired, the other Winx were tired, and she was reading _way_ too much into it.

But when everyone was summoned to the Headmistress' office... Bloom decided that something was definitely up.

It wasn't the run-of-the-mill "we need you to go on a mission" summons. The red-headed fairy knew that much before the Winx had even left their dorm. The makeup began to feel heavy on her face-like a suffocating second skin-as Stella stepped out of her room to join them. Their eyes met for a fraction of a second before Stella tossed her gaze around the room, a smile as bright as a star on her face. The look on her best friend's face betrayed that nothing was _wrong,_ thank goodness.

But something wasn't _right._

Bloom couldn't put her finger on it. Faragonda wouldn't be sending them on a mission just yet-even though Bloom would've put up a fight, the effort it took to even leave the dorm was astronomical. She wasn't ready for that yet. Her heart was still shattered, she still wanted to know _why,_ and no matter how much it would hurt her friends if they knew, she'd been spending her days showing off a tough look for them (keeping herself busy) and her nights crying out the tears that had built up during her performance.

Maybe they knew that she was faking it. Maybe it didn't matter whether or not they knew.

 _Fake it till you make it,_ Stella's voice sang in her head. It had been great advice before the ball-Bloom had been so worried that Sky's parents or the court or the guests at the ball would find something wrong with her. That she would mess up while they danced. That something would go horrendously wrong (not the thing that _had_ gone wrong, of course-that had been the one, singular thing that she hadn't been worried about happening) and they would hate her. Even though, yes, she was royalty in her own right. Even though she was a Winx and a Guardian Fairy. So Stella had told her to be as annoyingly confident as she could manage-if she acted like she knew what she was doing, no one would question whether or not she did. And the rest would follow, according to the blonde princess.

The only thing that had followed that night had been heartbreak, but it was a nice sentiment. If she continued to force herself to be fine (at least while the sun was up), maybe she would slowly start to become fine.

(She really couldn't see that happening, but she had to have some hope somewhere.)

Stella threw an arm around her shoulder. Bloom didn't jump-she was used to Stella pulling off an attempt at sneaking up on her, whether she meant to or not.

Bloom realized a beat too late that her feet were supposed to be moving. The blonde had likely announced this to the room, but she'd been so lost in her thoughts that she hadn't heard. Still, Stella was pulling her along, taking the brunt of her weight as she tried to put one foot in front of the other.

That had been getting harder and harder as more time passed.

She didn't want to be brokenhearted. But what was she supposed to do about it? There had been no goodbye, no explanation, no closure. She wanted to believe that if she had a reason _why_ , if she knew why he had chosen what- _who_ -he had chosen, then things would've been easier. Maybe that was true. Maybe it wasn't.

But it didn't matter. She had to deal with it. Look it in the eye and deal with it.

That's what mattered.

So Bloom stood up straighter, straightened the waistband of her blue skirt. Took her own weight, but let Stella keep an arm over her shoulder. Slung an arm around Stella's waist.

"What's the deal, Stel?" she whispered. Her voice was too rough, too hoarse. She wanted to hate it.

She didn't have the strength. The nerve. _The willpower to let him go_ , her mind supplied.

Her best friend looked over at her, eyes wide. The circles beneath them weren't so deep, which was good, but she almost looked... groggy. Still half-asleep. In a very princess-ly fashion, she turned her head to look straight in front of them again, and responded cheerily. "We're going to have a chat with Faragonda."

Bloom flicked her gaze around the rest of their friends, who had all but put themselves into a turtle-formation around her and Stella. They were looking around like something was going to jump out at them. Aisha looked like she was considering reaching out and knocking over a vase she passed. When she brushed past Musa to open a door, she shoved it so hard that it slammed into the wall on the other side.

The red-head narrowed her eyes at Stella's profile. It was obvious something was wrong, but her mind was almost foggy. Lethargic. She couldn't find the energy to work out what had happened. Why the other Winx were acting so weird.

It took another minute, a few more turns down the wide and oddly empty halls of Alphea, but eventually Stella stopped short.

Bloom was thrown off balance by the sudden change, and Stella grabbed her arm to steady her.

The blonde looked at the floor as she said, "The Specialists are here."

"Why?" There wasn't any fight or fire in her voice. There almost always was.

Flora put a hand on the arm Stella didn't have a hold of.

"We're not entirely sure," Techna explained. "We're going to Faragonda's to find out." The violet-haired fairy's voice was almost gentle.

Had Bloom really gotten this bad? That they were so worried?

 _Yes_ , she knew. _Yes, I have._

The knowledge didn't hurt. It was likely that any of the others would've reacted the same way. She was hurting, and they were her friends, and... they cared. They were worried because they cared.

They were worried because they cared that her heart had been torn into pieces.

By the boy that she loved.

"We need to get going," Techna said, interrupting the grim silence that had fallen over them. They must have looked odd, their little circle in the empty hallway. "Brandon said it was urgent."

When they started moving towards Faragonda's office again, Bloom couldn't help it. It was nearly instinct.

The Solarian princess and her boyfriend hadn't been speaking. Bloom had asked Flora, who had only shaken her head, wincing. She'd hated that her problems had driven a wedge between Stella and Brandon, who were so good for each other. Even through her heart-broken haze, she'd hoped that they would find a way to work things out. Brandon had looked so shocked as Sky announced Diaspro's name instead of hers-he couldn't have known. It wasn't his fault.

She really couldn't help herself. The quip was right on the tip of her tongue, and she didn't even feel _fine_ , but she felt... _something_. Which was a start.

She looked over to find Stella's face a bright, flaming red (nearly as red as her own hair). " _So_... Brandon called, huh?"

"I- _I_ didn't talk to him!" the blonde exclaimed. She looked around, narrowed her eyes. "Who did he talk to?"

"He called you," Aisha explained without turning to look at them. There was no bite or anger in her voice. "You were asleep, so we answered it. He told us to get down here."

Stella looked back at Bloom a moment later, eyes wide and face still red. Her voice was pitched awkwardly. "Yeah, he called." She shoved some of her blonde hair behind her ear.

Bloom just elbowed her in reply. In spite of all of the emotions she felt without feeling, the corners of her mouth dragged themselves upward.

The bubbling laugh that this pulled out of Stella was worth it, even though it hadn't taken any effort.

/

Stepping into Faragonda's chambers broke the spell.

The relative relaxation that had fallen over the Winx disappeared entirely as they entered the room, not pausing at the threshold. Faragonda's secretary, a brisk woman with eyes as sharp as Griselda's and hair as gray as Faragonda's herself, didn't bother looking up at them as they did so. They nearly ran from there to the door outside the office itself. The secretary, who usually tried to scold them for this behavior, and the subsequent barging into Faragonda's office that followed, still pretended they weren't there.

Her usual lecture ("I don't care if she wanted you on a mission, you are ladies! A few of you are princesses! Proper manners are crucial, regardless of the reason why you're in a hurry!") was almost missed as they passed her. It would've made the visit, the matter itself, whatever it was, seem less nauseating. Less... scary. It would've fit the routine.

Bloom couldn't figure it out, but it was the truth. Whatever they'd been called up there for was scary. It wasn't right.

Aisha went for the door. She spent a solid minute pulling on it before Flora, ever kind and patient, brushed her hand out of the way. She twisted the handle and pushed the door open with ease. No sardonic flourish, like Musa, or raised-eyebrow Look like Bloom or Stella might have given her. She stepped inside the office in a way that was entirely her own, too-carefully, quietly, without all the flash-and-bang of her teammates. She was gentle in everything she did.

Even her existence, Bloom knew, was powerful not in the power she held (like Bloom) or the people she led (like Stella) or what she stood for (like Aisha) or in her survival (like Musa) or in her becoming more than what she was expected to be (like Techna). She was powerful in that her kindness never faded. She was never rash or harsh or needlessly (or uncontrollably) angry.

They were all good people. Righteous in their hearts, great in their victories.

But Flora, they all knew, was the best of them.

Standing around Faragonda's office were the Specialists. They all came into Bloom's line of sight as she stepped up to Flora's shoulder. Brandon was behind Faragonda's desk (a place normally reserved for only the desk's owner herself and Griselda), face pressed against the glass of the floor to ceiling window of the balcony doors. He hadn't heard them enter, and Bloom watched as Stella, beside her then, inhaled sharply. Her boyfriend's hands were pressed against his sides, as if he was in pain.

She forced herself to push back the nausea that rose when she realized what could've made Brandon so miserable. He was headstrong, but he respected Sky's choices, even the ones he didn't like. Even if he was that upset about it... Bloom knew that he never would have let it show. Not to anyone-he had that much respect for the prince of Eracleon.

 _You're wrong_ , a voice hissed in the back of her head. _Don't give yourself false hope. He's not coming back for you. He's not going to tell you that he made a mistake._ She shook her head. _Even if he did, no matter how much you love him..._ She knew that she couldn't take him back. She had to get over him, no matter how much it hurt.

To ignore it, she glanced around the room, taking in the rest of the sight in front of her.

Timmy was examining the bookshelf that took up the right wall. Techna stepped around Bloom to join him as soon as she saw him. Bloom watched as Techna noticed that his gaze was locked on one book in particular, and she whispered a brief explanation of it's history.

Riven was to the left of Faragonda's desk, in deep conversation with Griselda. One of his eyes was levelling with Griselda's steely gaze. The other was keeping an eye on Brandon. Musa stiffened behind Bloom.

Aisha, the last to enter the room, sighed when she saw Brandon. She must've been the one that talked to him, then, if she was that concerned.

Faragonda was staring into the mirror on the left wall. It had been used many times to assist the Winx, and Bloom had assumed that she was readying it for use at first glance. However, when she turned her gaze back to the Headmistress, she realized that she was simply staring into it.

Bloom was about to clear her throat. She was considered the leader, after all. Best to keep up appearances.

Even if she really wanted to throw up-she did not like the look on Faragonda's face.

But, saving her for what she imagined may not have been the second time that day (Was that what she'd been feeling all day? That's what had been going on over her head and around her?), Brandon slowly turned around. His eyes widened as he took in Stella-the circles under her eyes were still somewhat noticeable, and there were curls in her always-perfectly-straightened hair. Her makeup wasn't done (Bloom wasn't sure she'd ever seen Stella outside their dorm without a full face of makeup).

 _She looks how I feel_ , Bloom thought to herself. The sardonic and dark humor wasn't lost on her. Her shoulders lifted as she snorted soundlessly.

Stella, despite her haggard appearance, stepped carefully around Flora (they would never barrel over Flora), and threw herself towards Brandon. The boy in question stepped around Faragonda's desk (he might have leaped over it, Bloom knew, if he was in better health (it was obvious that something was wrong) and had less respect for it's owner) and caught his girlfriend with one arm. The other remained pressed against his middle.

The red-head averted her eyes. She was over the moon (as much as she was capable of being, anyway) for her friends. Really. But she wasn't about to get her happy ending with Sky, and looking at Stella wrapping her arms around Brandon, pulling away to brush a hand over his injuries... It just made her feel worse.

Brandon was likely there to tell the Winx that something had happened, and they were already without Sky. If he'd been around to help the Specialists, he would've been in there with them, whether she was or not. He was good like that. Practical and strong. To make matters worse, Brandon was clearly hurt-the remaining members of their team needed help. "We need your help even when we're all at our best," she remembered Sky whispering to her. She'd asked him why they always went together on missions, and to hear that they weren't just letting them tag along (this was silly-even though they were still in their first year, the Winx had made valuable contributions to every mission they'd gone on together, but the fear had been an obnoxious one tugging at the back of her mind)... To hear that from him... It had meant the entire world to her.

And now he was off, living his princely life, with the girl he'd chosen over her.

She was so in love with him, and he was just... _gone_.

Aisha knew what that felt like-she knew what that felt like, Bloom knew, even though it was hard to recognize the Androsian princess for the person she'd been when Nabu had died-and stepped up to wrap an arm around her shoulders.

Not that Sky was dead or anything. Nabu was. Sky wasn't. The pain of the two princesses was very different.

Bloom wondered if 'dead' was better than just 'gone'. It was a selfish thing to think. It made her a terrible person.

But still... she would see him on the news. At Red Fountain, likely, when she went to work with the Specialists. If she ever had to go to Eracleon for anything. And she wouldn't just not... Doing that would be admitting how much he had hurt her, and she didn't want him to have that much power over her. It would hurt, it would feel like she had at the ball the first time she saw him-the feeling of not being able to breathe, of her knees going weak.

It would hurt, but she would do it.

 _Stop._ She slammed a mental wall between the train of thought and herself. _I can't afford to think like that. I have work to do._

It took a solid five minutes for Brandon and Stella to stare their full at each other. Bloom could hardly begrudge them this. Brandon ran a hand through Stella's blonde hair, messing it up even more. For once, she didn't swat at his hand or snap at him. She just stared at him.

A few more minutes passed, Stella's mouth opening and closing as she tried to come up with something to say. Bloom could've fallen over laughing when she finally exclaimed, her voice entirely without ceremony, "God, what happened to you?" She stepped back from him just enough to look at him and take stock of his injuries. She must've seen something Bloom didn't, because she let out a ear-piercing shriek that made even Riven and Griselda break conversation to look over at them. "Did someone _beat you up_?"

The righteous fury in the blonde's voice was something that Bloom had heard before, though rarely. It was always centered around the safety of her friends. The Winx. Alphea. Brandon. Her parents. The good of Solaria.

The people she loved. Her home. Her family. Her people.

"Kind of," Brandon chuckled. He winced, but made himself keep laughing. Trying not to worry Stella. His eyes darted to Bloom so quickly that she might have imagined it. His voice lowered, and he said by way of explanation, "Sky packs a punch."

Griselda waved her hand, and a chair flew from the far corner of the office and to behind Brandon. Her voice was oddly soft, but still an order, when she spoke. "You should be sitting. Broken ribs"-she paused, throwing Stella a Look as the blonde screeched out a loud " _What_?"-"are not to be taken lightly."

Brandon went to turn (likely to tell Griselda that he was fine) but was stopped both by his own groan of pain and a near-murderous look from his girlfriend. "I'll sit," he decided, his free hand moving in a placating gesture.

"Good choice," Stella snapped. As soon as Brandon had lowered himself into the chair, she threw her hands into the air, her hair lashing out wildly behind her. "You-What do you mean that you-Someone beat you up?" The look on her face fell apart. Her voice was barely a whisper as she made her conclusion aloud. " _Sky_ beat you up."

It was true-they all knew how well Brandon fought. The only person that would come out of a fight not looking worse than him was Sky. That's how much he loved his best friend, they knew.

And if Brandon had taken that much of a beating... Sky never would've hurt him either.

"Sky..." Bloom cleared her throat, ignored the way her voice broke around his name. " _Sky_ did that to you?"

"Bloom..." Riven started. He turned to face her. "Sky isn't himself right now."

Normally, she would've hated the way that he spoke to her. Would've gotten in his face, told him not to treat her like a child. But she could feel the tears in her eyes. Could imagine the way she looked so hurt, but so worried about Brandon and Sky and everyone in the room. The way her hands were probably trembling, clenched as they were at her sides.

"What do you mean?" Musa asked for her. Her tone was as brash and unrelenting as ever.

It was fitting that Brandon was the one to tell her. As if they had already discovered this, Riven gestured to Brandon. All of the Specialists turned to him.

She noted the shadows under his eyes, the bruise across his jaw. It was clear that he'd taken quite a few hits, but why? What for? Sky, as much as he may have hurt her, was a good guy. He would never hurt his friend. His best friend.

And if he had, for some awful and unapparent reason, he would've been with him the entire time as he healed. Brandon never would've been still looking hurt, up and walking around like this, without him.

"Riven figured it out," he began. "They"-he gestured vaguely around the room with the hand not seemingly glued to his ribs-"decided it would be best for me to tell you." He took a shaky breath. It was obvious that he didn't want it to be true, whatever it was.

Musa, again, filling in the words that Bloom wanted to grab Brandon by the shoulders and shout: "Just spit it out already."

Stella tossed the music fairy a Look. Brandon would never tell her to shut up-he was too polite-but Stella definitely would. She was fiercely protective of the people she loved, Bloom knew, and Brandon was injured to boot. "Watch it."

Brandon brushed off Musa's remark with an easy shake of his head, directed at Stella. His voice and expression were still grim when he said, "Sky is under a spell."

The floor fell out from underneath her-she knew good and well what that meant.


	8. Chapter Eight: Wicked Waiting

She knew she was falling.

The floor was coming towards her face. It was happening quickly, though she felt like she was falling through Jell-o. That meant that she should've been able to put her hands out to catch herself, but the words banging around in her skull distracted her.

 _It was a spell. A spell. A spell._

She would later be told that Brandon had dived forward to keep her from hurting herself, broken ribs and all, and Aisha had yanked her back upright. She heard the tale-tell sizzle of magic as the Headmistress waved her hand without looking over. At her command, a chair floated across the room and behind Bloom. When Aisha and Brandon had managed to get Bloom seated, the red-head looked up to see Stella standing, frozen and stock still, by the chair that Brandon had been sitting in seconds before.

It was Aisha that knelt in front of her when Brandon began to stumble back to his own chair. "Bloom, listen to me," she demanded, her hands squeezing the red-head's shoulders. "You have to keep it together. If Sky is under a spell, then he needs you, and you have to do this for him. You can lose your cool once this is sorted out if you want, but not until then."

Aisha had practically had to save the world right after losing Nabu. She'd lost the person that she loved, and had to jump right back up and finish things. Bloom was sure that she knew a thing or two about keeping it together when needed-and she was more than happy to take the advice, especially when Techna jumped in.

"Aisha's right, Bloom," Techna interjected, suddenly at her side. Bloom had thought that the violet-haired fairy looked a little rumpled when they'd been leaving their dorm. Up close, she could tell that she had been correct. Not all sharp edges and straight lines, as per her usual. Her shirt was wrinkled. Her hair looked like it could use some hairspray. "We're going to do this as a team, and we're going to be right there with you and Brandon, but we don't have time or energy to spare."

Everyone was a little shocked by Techna's words-they were more touchy-feely than they were used to from her. But all Timmy did, while the room's other occupants stared on in shock, was walk up behind her and plant a kiss on the side of her head. The gesture clearly confused it's recipient. The look Techna threw over her shoulder at Timmy was enough to figure that out. The Specialist turned bright red as soon as Techna turned back to Bloom.

"Who-who cast the spell?" There was more of a tremble in Bloom's voice than she wanted there to be, but she couldn't bring herself to care.

She realized, with some degree of satisfaction, that it was fire burning through her veins. That it had been what was distracting her from hating the way her hands were shaking-not indifference. Not exhaustion.

Anger.

"We're not sure," Riven answered. He sounded angry, too. "It was probably Diaspro." His hair seemed more red than usual.

Faragonda turned, but it was Griselda who admonished him. "We shouldn't draw conclusions, young man." The look on her face said innocent-until-proven guilty, but her eyes said that they all knew that he was right. Even her voice wasn't as harsh as it usually was-not a real scolding, then.

Bloom could've screamed at every second that ticked by. She'd been so stupid.

She'd been so blinded by her own emotions that she hadn't even thought to go talk to Sky. Well, she had, but she'd forced the idea away each time it crept into her mind. _There isn't any good in going and seeing him and Diaspro so happy together_ , she'd told herself before. No good in hearing that he'd never cared for her in the first place.

The red-head scoffed at the thought. Of course Diaspro was happy-she'd done this to them.

 _I could've put an end to this two weeks ago_ , she'd thought to herself. _But I was too busy feeling sorry for myself._

"Bloom, don't do that to yourself," Stella had called across the few feet between them. "You didn't know. You were doing the best thing you knew how to do, and that just happened to be picking yourself up. You can't blame yourself for trying to be okay." She paused, dragging her fingers through her hair. "Even if you were mostly pretending." A shake of her head.

So it was true then-Stella really had been on to her act the entire time. And from the way that the other Winx were nodding... so had they.

"None of us figured it out, Bloom. We're all at fault here," Brandon sighed dejectedly. When Bloom glanced up at him and Stella, she saw that the blonde was leaning against the arm of Brandon's chair. Their fingers were laced together-for the time being, at least, they were back to normal.

Stella gave her a tiny smile, venturing, "Fake it 'til you make it, right? We all pretended to be okay even when we weren't, and somehow, that caused us to take a million years to figure this out."

The words were true. Bloom, however, was too caught up in her own thoughts (read: wallowing) to pay them much attention.

She'd really been so insecure in her own relationship that she'd allowed herself to believe that the boy she loved would do something like that. How had she ever thought that about him? How had she ever, even for a moment, considered that he would do such a thing?

Stella, almost as if she could hear the dark monologue in Bloom's head, removed her hand from Brandon's and crossed the room to kneel in front of her. Aisha stood and joined Flora by the bookshelves.

The Solarian princess gave her a small smile. "Sometimes we let our own doubts mess things up before we get a chance to." Her face fell, and she had to clear her throat before she could continue. "I wouldn't even speak to Brandon, I was so angry. And that was so stupid. If all of us had talked..." She looked at the ground instead of Bloom. "We could've figured this out sooner."

"Stella, I-"

"You thought that he had finally done what you had always thought he would," Stella interrupted, placing a hand on her shoulder. "I know that you've never thought you were good enough for him, and that's so ridiculous, because you're amazing. And everyone is entitled to a few weeks of being stupid when they get their heartbroken anyway." She squeezed Bloom's arm.

It was true-Stella had an outline of time people were allowed to deal with various things. A week for a clothing/ party/ social mishap. Two weeks for absolute humiliation. Three weeks for breakups. Six months for complete and total heartbreaks. You had until your time ran out to mope. After that, you either got it together or were without an excuse.

The door behind them opened. Bloom turned to find Headmaster Saladin, flanked by Helia and Codatorta on either side, in the doorway.

"Our transportation is ready, Faragonda," Saladin announced by way of greeting. The worry on his face was evident. "We should be leaving now."

Bloom didn't take the hand that Stella offered her. She got to her feet on her own, dizzy and a little off balance as she was, and turned to face Red Fountain's Headmaster. "Then that's what we'll do."

When she looked over her shoulder, both the Winx and the Specialists had assembled behind her, and she followed Codatorta out of the office and towards the common area.

/

Bloom had felt a roaring, orchestra-accompanied sense of confidence before, but it was gone now.

The adrenaline of the discovery (which had chased the fog and exhaustion from her mind) had begun to wear off as they prepared for takeoff. Leaving Alphea by way of a Red Fountain battle cruiser was always a rush-the ship had to go through the wards, which was something in itself, even though it was spelled to be able to get in and out with "relatively little issue", as Brandon had put it the first time that the Winx had flown on one.

These words ran through Bloom's mind as the Phoenix's engines revved. Brandon was an expert pilot, they all knew, but the first time they'd all flown together (Sky had been with them; the ship had lurched so violently that he'd taken to cracking jokes to calm Stella, Flora, and even Bloom-Techna's informing them of their chances of survival every time the cruiser made a noise had made her sick to her stomach, too), going through the wards around Alphea had been terrifying. "Relatively little issue" had really meant that it was going to feel like putting your hands beneath one of those paper-free hand-driers in fancy bathrooms. It was so fast and strong that it felt like it was pushing at Bloom's skin, even in the ship.

Going through the strongest layer of the wards was the worst. It was like you were trying to fly straight through a mountain. But only for about a minute and a half or so, because after that, all of the resistance disappeared at once, and it felt like you were free falling. _Er, free_ fly _ing,_ Bloom corrected her thoughts.

Riven was silent in his co-pilot seat. He usually shouted something snide-Bloom's personal favorites included "Hang on to your hats-er, wings or crowns or something!", "Hope you girls are ready for liiiiiiiiiift-ooooooooooff!", and, once, an "Oh my God, we're going to crash!" before they'd even gotten off the ground yet-but not this time. The somber mood that had overtaken the group could only be compared to their return after Nabu died. There wasn't a peep from the control area of what Brandon referred to as the Bridge, which included the open cockpit, with the single exception of Brandon's "We have three hours until we enter Eracleon airspace."

Bloom leaned back in her seat, closed her eyes. Felt for the buckle around her waist with her hands. Once she was sure that it was secure, she tried to relax.

It wasn't going to happen-the words "Oh my God" and "a spell" and "What if we're too late?" were banging around in her skull-but it was worth the effort. She had not slept properly nor enough for the last couple of weeks, and she couldn't go in there so out of it. There was no telling what she would find. She had to keep it together.

The ship slowly lifted off the ground. Her fingers tightened around the ends of the armrests and her stomach lurched. The Phoenix tilted and the nose went upwards. It was a more careful takeoff than Bloom had ever known, and she wondered if Brandon and Riven were being careful on purpose. The problem with _that_ theory, however, was that it meant that they _chose_ to be extra _un_ -careful with their other takeoffs.

She squeezed her eyes shut as the cruiser shot forward at a diagonal. Her stomach dropped.

"We're heading for the wards," Riven called from his seat. His voice, just like the cautious maneuvering of the cruiser, was oddly somber. It scared Bloom more than anything-Riven was never so subdued. He was snarky and sarcastic, and sometimes borderline mean, but he was never like that.

Her stomach dropped even more when the ship came to an abrupt stop. It was like the nose of the craft ran right into a brick wall.

The imaginary brick-wall-of-resistance created by the wards would disappear next. The fairy was never able to gauge when it would happen, though. It always caught her off-guard.

Just as she settled back into her seat, tried to get her muscles to relax, the Phoenix was zooming past Alphea's wards and into open air. A few minutes more passed, and the same feeling of breaking through-more of a pull backwards than the altogether stop of the wards-hit them as they broke out of the atmosphere.

Usually, Stella sat in the seat beside her, and muttered something along the lines of "Does that really have to happen _every_ time?" after the jolt that accompanied getting through the atmosphere. But, as Stella had pulled up a seat beside Brandon at the head of the Bridge, she was alone, and her few feet of space on the cruiser remained silent.

/

Bloom knew that she shouldn't think about what was waiting for her once they got to Eracleon.

It was only going to freak her out more. Only going to work her up before whatever happened-because something would certainly be happening, there was no doubt about that-got started. It would mess up her focus. Use up what energy she did have left.

But... Still. Things were like this because she hadn't, not even once, considered that there was another explanation. She hadn't wondered if Sky had chosen to break her heart. If he was acting of his own free will. She'd never stopped to think that the boy that she loved would never do that to her.

That he loved her.

How would she feel if it had been her? If she'd been in that position, and he had allowed himself to cry and cry and cry and wallow in self-pity instead of remember that she loved him?

She would be... _What? How_ would _I feel?_

She tried to stick herself in that position. It had been nearly three weeks-she'd probably be pretty mad about that, if she was honest with herself. But... if he was honest with her, and said that he'd been so hurt, so heartbroken... That he'd doubted himself, like she had... No, she wouldn't be mad. It would just be a bad situation. It really _was_ just a bad situation.

The fairy forced herself to stop contemplating the other outcomes. Inhaled sharply. Exhaled through her teeth.

It would be okay. It had to be.

Another question tugged at the corner of her mind. _What can a spell like this do to someone?_ Even though she'd learned a bit about them in her charms and potions lectures, she still wasn't sure.

 _Could it have hurt him?_ Magic like that usually didn't cause long-lasting effects in their victims-which is what Sky was, Bloom realized, the victim of what Riven called a "power play" involving the guy she loved, the girl he was supposed to marry (who really wanted to be queen of Eracleon), and everything in the middle-but there was no telling what the spell on Sky could've done. The way that Sky had told her about Diaspro-he'd used the words "self-centered" and "conniving" more than once apiece-combined with the ghastly color of Riven's face as he explained his theory... Bloom knew that Diaspro was powerful enough to have come up with something worse than whatever the Specialists had read about, if she really put her mind to it.

There was movement beside her. She jumped a solid inch out of her chair.

When she yanked herself from her thoughts to turn and see who it was, she felt infinitely worse. It was Flora that had eased herself into the other seat.

 _Nice going, Bloom._ The apologetic look on the nature fairy's face made Bloom want to puke. She didn't get the chance-Flora had gone over to her on a mission.

"I know that you're worried about him, Bloom," Flora whispered. She took a sip of the latte-Stella had learned to snap her fingers and make them appear after the time they spent on Earth, and Flora had one nearly every day-that she held in both hands. "Talk to me about it."

The red-head should've shook her head and said, through a tight-lipped smile, "No, it's alright." But Flora was so earnest and kind-which was precisely the reason Bloom didn't want to burden her with the emotional turmoil raging inside her-that she couldn't help it.

When she opened her mouth to tell Flora how awful and guilty she felt, the words didn't come out. "What kind of spell do you think that...?"

She didn't have to finish the question-it was evident that the other girl understood her meaning perfectly. Flora's eyes widened a fraction of a centimeter, but nothing more. She opened her mouth to speak, snapped it shut and cocked her head to the side in a gesture that was more like Musa than herself.

"Well..." She took another sip of her drink. Swiped her tongue across her top lip to get rid of the foam it left behind. Brushed a lock of golden-brown hair behind her ear. "It depends on the purpose."

"Flora, I have to know." Bloom couldn't meet her eyes, so she chose to stare at the patterns criss-crossing the back of the seat in front of her. "I have to know what I'm walking into." _I have to know what he's been through._

The nature fairy only nodded. After a moment, she twisted in her seat, pulling her legs up and crossing them, so that she was facing Bloom.

"I understand," she said hesitantly. "But whatever I can tell you isn't going to be exact."

It was Bloom's turn to nod.

When she didn't say anything, or even look up, Flora leaned forward. "It could be a simple love spell." She stopped short, trying to see if her words would register with Bloom, but when she didn't turn to look at her, she explained, "That would mean that, as soon as it's removed, he should be back to normal. A little out of it, probably in the infirmary for a few days, but he should be fine."

That was good news. But there was more, Bloom knew. Much more. She couldn't let herself hope before she heard the rest of it.

"That's not what Riven thinks it is, though," the red-head inferred before the other girl could continue. "He wouldn't be so worried."

Flora's head bobbed up and down. She gulped. "No, no, it's not."

Bloom finally turned around with a jerk. Flora didn't even startle-Bloom was reminded of watching Flora do makeup or treat injuries. She had such steady hands. Bloom had never seen her jump when she was concentrated and focused like this. The look in her eyes was already like Bloom could lash out at any moment, so the red-head supposed that she was prepared.

Helia appeared behind Flora, a mug in his right hand. He took the cup that Flora was holding, pressed a kiss to her temple, and handed her the cup he'd brought over.

When he looked up and noticed the look on Bloom's face, he looked at Flora, eyebrows raised. The two of them spoke in head nods and eye movements and sighs for a few moments, and Flora finally nodded.

The Specialist wrapped his free arm around Flora's shoulders and leaned against the side of her chair.

"Riven thinks it's a control spell." Bloom was too stunned by the admission to consider how Helia had figured out both what they were talking about and where in the conversation they were.

The great thing about Helia was that he was gentle and kind, the way that Flora was, but he was very up front. Honest. Didn't like to dance around things. Like Riven-the two got along like peas in a pod, according to Brandon, who claimed he could never figure out why.

Bloom felt like the world around her was falling away and returning every second she spent staring, gaping, at Helia, but she was sure that she had an answer to Brandon's wondering.

"What-what does that mean?" she spluttered.

"It's nothing that can't be fixed, Bloom, you have my word." Helia's tone was nothing short of princely. Sky had even said more than once that he would've made an excellent prince-he was kind, but honest, and his word meant everything to him.

The thought of him made her stomach tighten. A control spell-she vaguely remembered learning about those. The year before at Alphea, Flitwick had done a series of lessons on evil spells like those, so that they would know what they were and how to combat them should someone try to use them against them in a fight.

Flitwick had said that the spells effectively trapped their victims in their own heads.

Sky-she couldn't imagine the passionate, opinionated guy that she loved being trapped like that. Every muscle in her body tensed up. That was so much worse than being spelled to be grossly in love with someone you hated.

To be forced to act like you were in love with someone like that... Someone you hated...

 _That_ was unimaginable. But to be stuck inside your head in the meantime...?

Bloom shuddered. "Oh-oh my God..." The words spilled out of her mouth. Her vision went blurry, eyes landed on the floor. "Oh my..."

"There's more," Flora whispered. "And you're right, you need to hear it."

Helia didn't look surprised at what she said, though his eyebrows had shot up at the ferocity in her voice. He blinked it off before he spoke. "Brandon has a theory."

She didn't know what to say.

"There's a possibility that Diaspro put a love spell on Sky, too," Flora told her. When Bloom looked at her through bleary eyes and didn't say anything in return, she tried, "It's just going to be a little harder to get through to him, that's all."

Her mood tilted for the dark side with a snort and a grimace. "It's going to be _pretty_ difficult to get through to him as it is."

She'd known that the love spell would make it difficult. The control spell would make it nearly impossible, even though he would be in there the whole time. That actually might've helped a bit-he could've fought it off from the inside, too.

But both of those at the same time... The control spell would make it nearly impossible to break the love spell.

Bloom should've felt bad for snapping at Flora, but exhaustion slammed into her like a brick wall.

"You should try to rest before we get there, Bloom." The nature fairy's tone was gentle, regardless of the way that Bloom had snapped at her. "I don't think going in there without some sleep is a good idea."

Helia jumped in with an easy smile. "Flo's right, Bloom. We'll leave you alone. Let me know if you need something to eat. I've got a stash of food in my locker." He helped Flora out of her chair with his free hand, lacing their fingers together.

They walked towards Brandon and Riven's piloting area hand-in-hand, their arms swinging between them. Their walk was slow and easy and Bloom wanted to be so angry about it-about how the world was going on when she had messed up so badly, when Sky was suffering-but all she was was tired.

She didn't have the energy to be anything else.


	9. Chapter Nine: Wicked Confrontation

Bloom slept for most of the journey, and probably would've slept right up until the ship landed, if someone hadn't woken her up.

Stella shook her awake, her hand more gentle than usual, and explained, "We're going to have a rough landing. There's nowhere level for them to put this thing"-she waved the hand that wasn't on Bloom's shoulder around, clarifying that she meant the ship-"in the forest,and they're going to do it anyway, so it's not going to be great." She tilted her head to the side, rolled her eyes. "Riven seems to think that it won't be as bad as other landings we've had, but I thought you should have a minute to wake up before we start descending."

The red-head knew that she was right-it wouldn't be as bad as some of the other landings they'd (narrowly) pulled off going on missions, because no forest-landing could eclipse that of the side of a mountain-but was still touched that Stella had bothered to wake her up. Sometimes it still hit her, that the Winx had made a family out of each other, and that she had people like that in her life, even after leaving everything she knew behind to train at Alphea.

The look on the Solarian princess's face said that she knew what was going through Bloom's head. The shake of her head said that she thought Bloom was being ridiculous-of course they'd made a family out of each other. They were a team.

When she could finally see straight (without shadows dancing around the lights from the cockpit, further blurring her vision), she realized a couple of things. Someone had dimmed the overhead lights over the chair where she'd fallen asleep. A blanket had been tucked around her. That was nice of the others. It sort of meant that they knew how sleep-deprived she'd been, but that was beside the point. It mostly meant that they cared.

"Thanks for getting me up," the red-head yawned. Her voice was thick and groggy with sleep. She was _still_ half-asleep, even after her nap. She dragged her hand across the lower half of her face to find a line of drool-she really had been _exhausted_. "What time is it?"

"It's late," Stella replied. She stepped around the chair that Bloom was in, bracing one hand against the seats in front of them to avoid falling on top of the other girl, and threw herself down in the other seat. "We've been in the air for a few hours."

A tube of pale pink lipstick appeared in Stella's hand. She uncapped it and, with her gaze still on Bloom, swiped it over her lips.

Bloom nodded back. She'd curled up in her seat while she'd been asleep, tucked her arms around her head and laid against the arm of the chair. Her limbs felt heavy, but she forced herself to sit up. To turn around in the chair, sit up straight. Stretch her arms above her head-her shoulders and back popped loudly.

When the Dragon-Flame wielding fairy didn't say anything at all, the blonde took it upon herself to do the talking. When she opened her mouth, rubbing her lips together to spread her lipstick around and popping them, Bloom was sure that she was going to fill the silence with random chatter. Stella went the complete other way, though. Bloom felt her stomach drop as the reality of her situation slammed into her once again.

"Listen, B, you can't freak out, okay?"

In return, the red-head managed a small nod. "I know." Her voice sounded hollow-the fire was missing, completely gone. She sounded like she'd had the wind knocked out of her by a truck. She kept bobbing her head up and down, not quite able to make herself stop. That required energy she didn't have. Focus she didn't have, too, when her mind was on a prince with light hair and blue eyes.

"You have to keep it together. Sky is not going to be himself, and it's going to be bad-you know that. But you can do it."

There were tears in her eyes. She nodded anyway.

/

There were still tears in her eyes when the ship finally touched down. If taking off at Alphea was like trying to go through a brick wall, landing on Eracleon (especially in the forest behind the palace, where the wards were not as heavy) was like gliding through cotton candy. It was so careful that Bloom barely noticed when the ship made contact with the ground.

Stella had stopped talking after she'd finished with her pep talk. She'd clearly decided that the last thing her red-headed friend needed was to be that emotional when they got into the palace. She had only managed to sit still and be quiet for a few minutes, though-neither of these things were easy for the blonde, but at the same time, it was nearly impossible-before she'd turned to Bloom with a near-maniacal grin on her face.

The blonde had snapped her fingers and then opened her hand to reveal a small bottle of nail polish, which was so red that it that nearly matched Bloom's hair. Stella had quickly set to work polishing Bloom's nails. It had taken every second between then and when the cruiser had begun to descend, but when Brandon had come over the intercom and announced a five-minute warning, Stella was using a magic-based nail hardener that Techna and Flora had made for her birthday to make sure that the red-head's nails wouldn't chip or get messed up.

And so Bloom had mostly regained control of herself (and had a fresh but perfectly dry and smooth manicure, courtesy of Stella, Princess of Solaria and Apparent Expert Nail Artist) when she stepped out of the cruiser and onto Eracleon soil.

The forest smelled like flowers and dew. It was nothing like the forests on Earth, though, and Bloom found herself deeply inhaling the sweet smell. Somehow, she was one of the first people off of the ship, right after Helia and Flora and Stella, who'd glued herself to the Dragon-Fire wielding fairy's side, and this gave her plenty of time to soak in the peace of the forest and it's beauty as they waited for the rest of the team to disembark.

Brandon's voice floated from the inside of the ship to where the four of them stood a few feet away from the craft. His voice was loud an clear, like he'd gotten a second wind, and Bloom wondered what potion Flora and Techna had brewed for him-it had to have both dulled the pain of his injuries and given him an energy boost. "We're going to go ahead and get moving," he called. "Headmaster Saladin is going to open up a portal for us to get into the palace. He's already cleared it with the King and Queen, so we should be good there."

At the mention of the King and Queen, Sky's parents, Bloom's stomach dropped. How was she going to explain this to them? That she'd been so stupid and their son had paid the price? Erendor would be livid, and Samara would... The Queen was a kind woman, Bloom had no doubt-Queen Samara had been the one that had convinced Erendor to allow Sky to break his betrothal to Diaspro to be with Bloom. She loved her son, wanted him to be happy. But her kindness would likely run out when she realized the full effect that Bloom's actions had had on Sky.

And that would only matter if Sky was even able to forgive her anyway.

"We need to get moving, ladies and gentlemen," Codatorta declared. His booming voice pulled Bloom out of her thoughts, and she looked around to see that the rest of the group had joined them on the ground. "His Majesty is expecting us."

Bloom froze mid-step forward. _They're expecting us?_ That _'s how he got permission to portal in-we're meeting with Sky's parents before we-_

The thought was nauseating. What was she supposed to say to them?

Stella looped an arm through hers and started pulling her forward. Seeming to understand her sudden lapse, she turned to Codatorta and asked, "What exactly do they know, if you don't mind my asking?" Her voice was that of a princess-not the bratty or snobby one most people mistook her for, but the regal one that dealt with disputes between the Winx or their classmates when it became too emotionally draining for Flora to deal with them.

Codatorta was a smarter man than most gave him credit for. Bloom was sure of this, because when he turned to look at them as he answered Stella's question, he looked directly at her (as if she'd asked the question) and not Stella.

"Sky's parents have been made aware of the situation, and, before I could explain that none of us had any idea, they asked after you and Brandon."

 _They asked about me?_ It made no sense to Bloom-asking about Brandon was obvious, because Sky and Brandon were practically brothers. But this was Bloom's fault, and asking about her almost made it seem like they were worried about her. They were not the kind of people to be so concerned about someone who had allowed this to happen to their son.

They stopped a few hundred feet from the ship for Saladin to make a portal. The group crowded together in a half-circle a couple of steps behind the Headmaster, whose back was to them, not wanting to interfere or get hit by a stray ray of magic.

No one could quite see what Saladin was doing, though he was moving his hands around in front of him. It startled everyone (with the exception of Codatorta, who Bloom imagined never jumped or startled) to all of them when he said over his shoulder, "Sky's parents do not blame you for what happened, Bloom."

She couldn't help but disagree. "If I hadn't been so focused on myself-"

"None of us figured it out, either, you know." Riven cut her off. "I was in the room when the Headmaster called King Erendor, and Queen Samara was incredibly worried that you would never forgive them for not doing something about it sooner. This is no one's fault but Diaspro's, and we need to stop blaming ourselves so that we can go and save Sky." Somehow, Bloom realized, the angry Specialist was splitting his glare between her and Brandon.

Brandon sighed. "You're right."

"Don't sound like that's such a surprise, Brandon." Riven actually shot Brandon a smile before his face went back to perfect seriousness. "The Headmaster and Codatorta and Helia and Flora are going to go talk to Sky's parents. While they do that, we're going to go and get Sky. Are we clear?"

Varying words of agreement ("Crystal!", "Yes!", and Brandon's "Alright, then.") were said. Bloom glanced at Brandon, who should've been leading the brief discussion, but was actually leaning on Stella a bit and hurriedly swiping through his phone with one hand. Codatorta gave Riven a nod of approval, and Brandon fist-bumped his friend.

Maybe they all needed to learn to lean on each other a bit more.

The portal was done a few seconds later. It was the first of two, Bloom realized-this was the portal for her and Brandon and the others who were going to find Sky, and it was going directly to his quarters in the palace. Saladin would create the second one once they left.

Which meant that, because the King and Queen were not the kind of people you kept waiting, they had to get going.

She stepped forward, shoving her nerves away as she walked towards the swirling blue portal. It wasn't the same blue as Sky's eyes, but that didn't matter. She held her head up as she stepped through.

She'd be looking into his eyes again soon enough.

/

Bloom didn't have time to wonder what Saladin, Codatorta, and Helia and Flora would say to the King and Queen as her feet hit the ground. She went down to her knees to deal with the impact from the portal, just like she'd been taught, and she popped right back up a second later. She was in the moment, not on autopilot, and her mind couldn't wonder to the throne room where the King and Queen were about to be greeting the "diplomatic" party, as she'd heard Riven call them under his breath.

Her eyes scanned the corridor, the walls on either side of her. She hadn't been in this wing of the palace but once, if she remembered correctly. It was the wing opposite his own quarters on the fourth floor, and he had brought her to the balcony that was currently to her right. "It has the best view of the sunset in the entire capitol city," he'd assured her, an eager smile on his face, tugging her down the hall behind him. He'd actually started walking backwards at some point, and she'd had to carefully steer him out of the way of a couple of passing people. The whole time, laughter was bubbling up inside her.

It was essentially the first time she'd been truly awake in the moment and not lost in a sea of grief or whatever mind-numbing task Stella had given her since the night of the ball. The circumstances were terrible, yes, but her limbs were moving on their own and she wasn't having to force herself to go forward or to think straight.

The portal hissed behind her, and she turned to face Brandon, who had fallen on a knee as soon as he'd come through and was breathing heavily. She extended both her hands to him, hauled him to his feet when he accepted her help. Let him lean on her for a moment to catch his breath.

Stella would be through next, and Bloom had an odd feeling that he didn't want her to see him like this. That was likely why he'd come through before Stella-it gave him a moment to re-collect himself. It occurred to Bloom that the only reason Brandon would've been okay with _her_ seeing him like that (and not his girlfriend) might've been that they were sort of in the same boat. Where he was injured, she'd been acting pathetically.

"You know that Sky isn't going to take how we've been acting well," he muttered. He took his weight off of her and stood up straight - he sharply inhaled, as if in pain, but nothing changed on his face. He was good at hiding it. "Someone's going to let it slip, but he's not going to take it well."

"Yeah, I know." The red-haired fairy sighed. She fidgeted with the waist band of her pants, looking down so that she didn't have to meet his eyes. "We can't _not_ tell him, though."

She was a little embarrassed about how pathetic and sad she'd been acting, but she wasn't going to hide it from him-she had to tell him how heartbroken she'd been. She had to make him understand. But she also knew what Brandon _really_ meant, why Brandon had taken the tonic that Flora and Techna had obviously given him - he clearly didn't want to tell Sky how badly he had hurt him, the kind of damage that he'd done. Even under the influence of a spell (of several spells)... Sky would never forgive himself. He would say that there was no excuse for hurting the people you care about, no excuse for hurting people that love you.

Brandon knew this, too, but lying about it would only make it worse. He _had_ to know that.

"You have to tell him the truth, Brandon. If you cover it up, he's only going to think that you're actually mad at him. That isn't what he needs. We all need to be honest with him, and each other, and ourselves." Bloom wasn't really sure where the pep talk was coming from, but she went with it as it came to her. She ran a hand through her hair, turned to face the portal again. "Look what happened because we refused to admit that something wasn't right. I don't want to do that again."

He turned to look at her, one eye still on the portal and one glaring at the side of her head. "If this was one of the Winx, you would tell them?" He couldn't bear to say it, but she heard the underlying question loud and clear: _If this was you and Stella, would you tell her?_

Stella came flying through the portal, then, and Bloom stepped out of the way. At the same time, she reached a hand backwards to catch her best friend by the arm. Once the blonde (who had never paid much attention when Faragonda was giving magical transportation lessons, including the explanation of the principle of Portal Momentum) was steady on her feet, she caught Brandon's eye and nodded.

 _I would do anything for Stella, like you would do anything for Sky. Sometimes the 'doing anything' part doesn't necessarily mean that it's going to be enjoyable, just that it's necessary._

Bloom hoped that Brandon knew what she meant.

/

It took a few more minutes for everyone to make it through the portal and steady themselves. This particular portal, likely due to the fact that it was bypassing the palace wards, which, like the cruiser going through the Alphea wards, made everything a little more difficult on the body. By the time that they were ready to go, Bloom was freakishly on edge - she wanted to go find Sky, wanted to get this over with. She knew that she would have to get past Diaspro - it was her spell, and unless Bloom could weaken her, the magic that was holding the spell together likely wouldn't give out.

And since she had to be the one to do it, she already had a plan.

Diaspro had probably used so much of her power to twist the spells together. That was the only way to cast two spells at that level of power (where it would've held on permanently) on someone without them conflicting and nullifying each other. If Bloom could weaken Diaspro, and then let the other Winx hold her off long enough to break the spells apart... All she would have to do after that was break the love spell. The control spell would be harder to break, but Sky himself would likely be able to help her break that one.

Diaspro was the only problem with that equation.

"Don't worry," Aisha whispered, suddenly beside her. "Stella and I will keep Diaspro busy. You and Brandon have to find a way to get through to Sky, and Musa and Riven, and Techna and Timmy, are going to have to hold off anyone else that might try to get in the middle of it."

Bloom hadn't even considered that. What if Diaspro had guards of her own? What if she had managed to convince everyone in the palace that her and Sky were so in love, and they chose to work against the Winx and the Specialists?

Aisha rolled her eyes. Somehow, the Winx had become bizarrely good at sensing each other's emotions (with the slight exception of Techna, who was difficult to read on her best day) and it seemed that Aisha still had no qualms about calling her on her B.S. "Didn't I just tell you not to worry?"

"I'm just... It's a lot, is all." The red-haired fairy opted for a half-truth. "I'm hoping I can deal with her when we get in there."

It was Musa that responded this time, even on the other side of the almost-circle they'd been standing in, waiting on the portal to close. They wouldn't need it to get back out, so it had to disappear before they could move on. "You'll be fine. Diaspro's got nothing on your Dragon-Flame, and that aside, I'm sure that you're angry enough to break her nose or something."

"She's obsessed with her looks enough that that would send her over the edge or something," Riven chuckled darkly.

That definitely wasn't a nice thing to say, Bloom knew, but she needed the laugh. And at the moment, considering exactly what Diaspro had done to the boy that she loved, Bloom almost thought that she deserved it.

She could feel bad about everything she did when she was so mortally furious later, anyway.

/

They made their way to Sky's quarters after that. It didn't take nearly as long as Bloom had thought that it would before, but that might have been because she ran the whole way there. Most of the girls had shifted by then (with the exception of Stella, who was adamantly staying beside Brandon's side, and trying to take on some of his weight, because he was already turning a nasty color; and Bloom, who wasn't ready for that familiar fire to be coursing through her veins so soon, not when she was already so hot with anger) and, wings fluttering near-silent, flew about an inch off the ground instead of try to keep up with her.

Bloom stopped at the door to his chambers first. She stood there, trying to listen for sounds inside, but failing: she couldn't hear anything over the twin beating of her heart and the pounding of feet on the floor behind her. It took longer than she would've liked for them to catch up with her, and her fists balled with impatience and fury, but she decided to go ahead and shift.

There was no one around to see besides them, anyway - not even the guards that were usually stationed outside of Sky's chambers were there, probably sent away by Diaspro before she started casting spells on their prince.

She closed her eyes, let her powers wash over her. She shivered as her long pants and sweatshirt disappeared, replaced with tighter and generally less clothing, which, while she never would've worn so little on Earth, she had to admit that her fairy-clothes were a little easier to fight in. Raw magic flowed freely through her veins. Her wings appeared at her back, and she went a few inches off the ground half-experimentally.

Even though she'd done this so many times, she still somehow always expected her wings to give out or only be a figment of her imagination.

The whole group was behind her as soon as her toes touched the floor again. Brandon was far paler than he should've been. Sweat had beaded at his forehead (the other Specialists, even Timmy, didn't look the slightest bit out of breath), and Stella rolled her eyes before not-quite-roughly-but-almost grabbing for his hand (the one that was not pressed tightly to the side with the broken ribs).

He glared at her, but started breathing more evenly after a few seconds. He stood up straighter. Bloom realized then that Stella had shoved some of her magic at him through their point of physical contact (that was why she'd grabbed his hand), just like Professor Flitwick had taught them.

Maybe the blonde paid a bit more attention than she let on.

He wasn't healed, but the magic that she'd shared between them would extend the effects of the tonic that Flora and Techna had made for him. Bloom knew that it would last long enough to get to the infirmary, where he would have to be looked as well as Sky.

Even after Stella's brows un-furrowed themselves, when it was clear that her work was done, Brandon was still holding on to her hand for dear life.

Maybe they would be okay.

Bloom whirled around to face the door again. It wasn't going to be any easier if she waited any longer, she knew, so she went ahead and sized it up. A blast of power would likely light it on fire (the King wouldn't want that), and she didn't want to wait on Musa to pick the lock (she was already too wound up).

She took a step back on her toes (her wings held her up enough that she could walk comfortably on the balls of her feet), took a deep breath, and kicked the door open.

It slammed against the wall with a loud _bang_ , and bounced off the wall with the force from the impact. Bloom pushed it out of her way again and stepped inside the room.

She hadn't had a clear view of the room before then, but what she saw when she stepped inside threatened to knock her off of her feet again. It was like a punch to the stomach.

Sky and Diaspro were sitting on the love seat in the front of the parlor-area. She was half on his lap, and he was running his hands up down her arms. His forehead was resting on her shoulder.

He didn't even look up to see what the noise was.

"Get away from him, Diaspro," Bloom ground out through her teeth. Fire was already sizzling on her fingertips, a flame outright dancing in one of her palms. "You can't do this to someone and expect that you're going to get away with it."

 _You can't do this to me, to him, and expect that I'll let you get away with it._

She smiled like a snake, all teeth, and her eyes went from silvery-white to gold. She reached a hand back to run through Sky's hair, and Bloom was only stopped from lunging at her by Stella and Aisha, who each wrapped both hands around one of her arms and tugged her backwards.

"Oh, but Bloom," Diaspro giggled, her voice candy-sweet, "I already have."


	10. Chapter Ten: Wicked Undoing

Stella and Aisha still had a hold of her, which was good, because there was no telling what she would've done to Diaspro if they hadn't. It was quite stupid of them to be so close to her when there was actual fire in her hands and she was so angry, but she didn't bother telling them to move.

They were standing between her and doing something she'd regret (especially if something went wrong and she hit Sky in the process).

"How could you possibly think that you've won this, Diaspro?"

Her voice was deadly calm, and even as she spoke, she felt her magic re-centering inside her. She'd felt that before - when Stella had been knocked to the ground by one of the Trix, when Daphne and her parents were attacked - but never like it was then.

Like the fire inside her was just reshaping into something more concentrated. Which was good, because she had to keep it together.

Diaspro shifted her skirts (and the Specialists behind her moved as a unit, a sharp hiss slicing through the tension-filled air as their swords appeared - they thought she was preparing for an attack) with a smirk. The movement revealed a ring the size of a nickel on her finger. It sparkled in the light, but not in the right way - it was gaudy, and it seemed all wrong for her.

It was also Sky's mother's ring, which Bloom had noticed her wearing virtually every time she'd been near the woman. It must've been some love spell if she'd managed to get his mother's ring out of him.

But also - if Sky's parents had asked after her when they talked to Codatorta, that meant that they had to have been surprised, didn't it? Why would they have allowed Sky to give Diaspro his mother's ring after everything that had happened? They certainly wouldn't have, not unless Sky had been very, very convincing.

So. That's how powerful those spells were.

"He proposed to me a few days ago," Diaspro explained. Her voice was sugary sweet, but all Bloom heard was nails raking down a chalkboard. "We're going to be married in a few days."

Sky didn't budge. His hands kept running up and down Diaspro's arms, but where his left hand went all the way to her shoulder, his right hand only went to her elbow - he was injured.

The fire inside her seemed to roar then, to wrap snake-ish tendrils around her heart and each of her ribs for the way that her chest burned. It hurt to know that she could've stopped this, could've saved him so much suffering if she'd done something sooner, but Stella's words from before ran through her mind: _It's going to be bad, you know that, but you've got to keep it together. You can do it._

 _Yeah, Bloom,_ she reminded herself, _you can do this._

It wasn't going to get anywhere if she kept going in circles with Diaspro. She only wanted to make Bloom angry, to get under her skin, and they did not have that kind of time. Brandon needed to see a doctor, and there was no doubt in her mind that Sky needed medical treatment of some sort.

And, according to something Professor Flitwick had told them during one of their Charms lectures, the longer control spells were on someone, the harder they became to break. Past a certain point, it became nearly impossible. _I just hope it isn't too late._

She had to change her approach. Bloom decided to see if she could get through to Sky directly. "Sky," she said, voice cracking around his name, "you know that this isn't right."

Diaspro shook her head and stepped to her feet. Every motion she made was smooth, regal in nature. None of the sharp lines or improper-ness that Bloom knew that she bore, not having grown up in the environment that Diaspro had - a real princess, one that had grown up to take a crown and power for herself.

 _Apparently,_ she thought snarkily, _when she can't power for herself, she likes to destroy peoples' lives in order to get it the hard way._

The platinum blonde stepped towards her. Took a sip from a wine glass that was suddenly in her hand. Behind her, Sky straightened up and stared straight ahead, not moving but for the rise and fall of his chest. Diaspro didn't notice as she taunted, "Your precious prince made a deal with me, Bloom."

 _A deal? What is that supposed to mean?_

Quietly, behind her, satisfied that there were no other people in the room, waiting to jump out at them, Techna and Timmy slipped into the hall to guard the door. It was just as well - Bloom didn't really want them to see what she was going to do to Diaspro. Techna would call it "highly illogical", even when she meant well.

She took another sip of whatever she was drinking. When she returned her arm to it's earlier position, putting the glass in front of her chest, rolling the stem between her fingers, Bloom noticed that her cheeks were slightly flushed. "I suggest that you take your leave before I change my mind about keeping my end of it."

 _What had she given him in exchange for this?_ Sky never would've made a deal with Diaspro. To him, that would've been surrendering his life and his kingdom - he _never_ would've done that to his people. What would ever have been enough to sway him so much was obviously beyond Bloom's reach. She had absolutely no idea.

"Oh, you don't know?" The Princess of Gems giggled (her laugh was absolutely sickening, but there wasn't another word for it). She took another drink, gingerly brushed a few rings of platinum curls from the side of her face. "He was _very_ worried that I wouldn't be able to help myself when it came to going after you, you know, and he said that he would give me _everything_ I wanted if only I left his _precious fairy_ alone." The emphasis she put on each word gave Bloom the impression that she meant it the way one might spat words, but she was far too proper to do that.

The world seemed to fall out from underneath her as the girl's words sunk in. Sky had bargained away the rest of his life, his kingdom, to protect her should she come looking for answers. She knew that he only did it because he loved her, and her heart felt like it was breaking in half all over again, but at the same time, the words ' _God, he's such an idiot, why would he do that?'_ kept playing through her head.

Maybe he'd known that she would arrive, looking for him, and he wanted to make sure that she had time to remove Diaspro's spells.

"But, of course," she half-purred, "there was nothing stopping me from getting everything I wanted anyways. It's just that the love spell would've taken so much longer if I hadn't agreed to it. These sorts of things don't go on so easily when people are so angry, and I'm really not so much of a patient person."

It was a trap, and she knew it, but the part of her brain that was telling her to _stop, wait, hang on-_ was drowned out by the part that wanted to beat the Princess of Gems to a pulp.

This time, Stella and Aisha weren't prepared for her lunging forward (likely because they were so shocked by her words themselves), and Riven, who reached for her from behind, missed her shoulder by centimeters as she reached for the platinum blonde.

Diaspro didn't even step out of the way. All she did was gasp in a ridiculously undignifying manner - for someone so capable of hurting others, maybe she was bad at defending herself - and shriek, "Sky! You have to protect me!"

Bloom wasn't prepared for what happened next: the prince was on his feet and throwing himself between herself and the girl she'd been seconds from throwing to the ground, and then Aisha and Musa were _on_ Diaspro. Riven was holding Brandon back-while Bloom could shield herself with her magic, Brandon had no such way to protect himself, and he was already weak with the injuries he had.

Sky didn't seem to notice Stella and Aisha dueling with Diaspro behind him - his focus was centered on Bloom, and she was suddenly self-conscious of her bright red (and very messy) hair and the bags under her eyes. Normally, these things would've softened his blue-eyed gaze and the hard set of his mouth.

But his expression didn't change.

"Sky," she whispered, meeting his steeled gaze, "I know that you're in there somewhere."

He stepped towards her, shoulders pushed back and stance evened out. She knew what was coming next, but she forged ahead anyway.

"Sky, you're never going to do anything that makes me love you any less than I do, okay? I know I'm late, but I'm here now, and I'm here because I-"

She had enough sense to spread her wings as far as they could go before he slammed her into the wall to the right. She'd known it was coming, but she hadn't been expecting the impact, and the air was knocked out of her.

She didn't even remember seeing him reach forward, he'd been so _fast_ \- it hadn't been him, then, because that sort of speed was only attainable through magic. So it was still Diaspro guiding his actions, even occupied with the other princesses on their team as she was.

If Sky hadn't been holding her wrists against the wall, she would've slid down to the ground, it had hurt so badly. "I don't know you," he said through gritted teeth.

"Yes, you do," she coughed, trying to catch her breath. She shook her head to get her hair out of her face. Inhaled shallowly. "I'm here, Sky, and I'm not going anywhere. You _know_ who I am."

He shook his head angrily. Tightened his grip on her arms. "I don't know you."

 _God_ , hearing him say that felt like something was wrapping around her heart and squeezing. The conviction in his voice was like an added slap to the face. But what was she supposed to do?

"My name is Bloom, Sky, and _I love you_." She closed her eyes around the tears that had begun to blur her vision, but it didn't work. One tear rolled down her cheek, and then another. "I am here _because_ I love you."

Confusion danced in his eyes, his eyebrows furrowed. Bloom realized that she was getting through to him just as Diaspro yelled, "If you say one more word to him, you _stupid fairy_ , I'll make sure you _never_ make it off this planet!"

Sky whirled around to face Diaspro. "Don't you _dare_ call her that."

His voice was startlingly calm, but when Bloom stepped around him to get a look at his face, his eyes were clear.

She'd broken the love spell.

Diaspro was so caught off guard by the same realization that Stella planted a kick to the small of her back, and the Princess of Gems fell to the ground in a heap. "Take the spell off of him, you stupid princess."

"And why would I do that?" she hissed in return. She put one foot out in front of her, went to take another step to her feet. "I'm going to be queen."

"Oh, no you're not," Brandon ground out, moving to kneel in front of Diaspro (and to generally be in between her and Sky). "I'm going to make sure of that."

Sky collapsed a moment later. Bloom barely managed to get a hold of the front of his shirt before he fell to the ground, and between her and Riven, they managed to get him sat down on the couch behind them.

He was breathing heavily, paler than he'd been a moment before. The room was dead silent for all of two and a half minutes before he spoke, and when he did, his voice was shaky and barely a whisper. "What - what happened?"

Bloom could've started crying again - that was _her_ Sky, trying to keep the tremble out of his voice, trying to sit up straight on his own, rather than lean on one of the people next to him.

She stepped in front of him and knelt to meet his eyes. "It's okay now, you don't have to worry about it. We've got it all taken care of."

" _Bloom_? You're - you're _here_." He glanced around the room and then frantically grabbed for her arms. "Bloom, Bloom, I'm _so_ sorry, I - "

The red-haired fairy climbed to her feet and, after carefully removing his hands from her arms, pull him into a gentle embrace. "You've got nothing to be sorry for, alright?" She whispered into his ear, and he froze for a second, but then nodded into her shoulder.

Sky didn't say anything else, just relaxed into her arms, and Bloom glanced at Riven inquiringly. " _What just happened?"_ she mouthed at him.

"It appears that when Sky and Diaspro made their agreement, because so much magic was in the air at the time, it became enforced by magic. When she threatened you, it broke the rest of the spell, and..." Riven trailed off but gestured to Sky by way of explanation.

Musa and Stella dragged the platinum blonde off of the ground and all but hauled her into the hallway. When she planted her feet and tried to fight of Stella's iron-grip, Stella rolled her eyes and elbowed her hard in the face.

Blood immediately spurted from the princess's face, but Stella was unfazed. "If you ever do something to hurt the people I love ever again, I will not stop at breaking your nose, you sorry excuse for a princess."

She turned and continued dragging Diaspro towards the door as if nothing had happened.

When Bloom asked Stella about this turn of events a few weeks later, wondering what her best friend meant, Stella would pair a caustic eye-roll with a dark smirk, and reply, "Princesses are made, not born. And it takes a whole lot more than the ability to smile and wave to be a real princess. It means caring for your people, and defending those who need it. It isn't always about crashing through every wall standing between you and what you want - sometimes it means sacrifice, too, and accepting defeat."


	11. Chapter Eleven: Wicked End

The tension in the room evaporated as soon as Diaspro was gone.

The fight, the fire, the anger - all of it was gone as soon as it had come, replaced by bone-deep exhaustion and a different kind of anger, the kind that would have to be worked out over time. The room was silent as some of the Specialists and Winx worked to set it to rights. Maybe it was because they didn't want to disturb Sky, maybe it was because everyone was too burned out to talk or joke back and forth as they usually did after a successful mission. It might have been, Bloom knew, what the mission was that made that so impossible - seeing Sky like this wasn't easy for any of them. But regardless of the cause, the room was quiet as furniture was righted manually and the various messes that had been left in the wake of the scuffle were vanished and fixed up with spells.

Flora came over and offered Bloom a glass of a scentless blue liquid. Bloom accepted it, doing her best to find a kind smile for Flora. In turn, Flora smiled back and explained, "This will start the healing process. It's something Helia and I made on the way here."

Without a second thought, Bloom told Sky she needed him to drink it, no matter what it tasted like, and tipped the cup up so that he could. There wasn't much in the glass. Once Sky had gotten all of it down, Flora muttered something about giving Brandon a dose when Stella came back, and flitted back to the other side of the room.

Bloom was grateful - Sky's body would start healing itself from the inside, which would put an end to the bleeding. It was one less thing they'd have to worry about until they got him back to the healers at Alphea.

Bloom stood holding Sky for several minutes. Her arms were as tight around him as she dared have them; she didn't have a clue where all of his injuries were or the extent to which he was injured, even, and she refused to hurt him. Even if it would've technically been an accident. She just couldn't stomach it after seeing what Diaspro had done to him.

It was a wonder that she hadn't puked on the floor as soon as Stella had taken Diaspro away. Bloom wanted to do so much worse than break her nose, but at the same time, she knew that Sky wouldn't have wanted that. She begrudgingly chose to go along with what he would've wanted. It wasn't an easy choice, considering what Diaspro had done to him, but... _You don't have to like it_ , she'd told herself as the door had been closed behind Diaspro's thrashing form. _You just have to deal with it_.

Bloom supposed that she was being a bit overdramatic. It wasn't easy to restrain herself at all, but having a barely conscious Sky in her arms was effective a method as she could've come up with. Clinging to her, shivering so hard that he'd practically been vibrating with it, whimpering in pain every so often (and trying his best not to do any of those things), Sky was a sight. Even in her arms, he was still freezing cold, and between the exhaustion and the side-effects of Diaspro's spells, Sky had been rendered almost too weak to move at all. He was confused, too, by what was going on - this could've been caused by any number of things, but Diaspro's messing with his head, his exhaustion, and his numerous injuries were the most likely culprits.

"I found a few blankets," Riven said quietly, walking towards the love seat where Sky was sitting. True to his word, Riven's arms were loaded with a few quilts and quite a few extra blankets.

Nodding, Bloom kneeled down to talk to Sky. She braced his arms with her own, pressed her hands against his shoulders, and did her best to balance the both of them in hopes of preventing her boyfriend from tumbling off of the love seat. "Can you hear me, Sky?"

Sky found the energy to give her a nod of his own, a moan that was probably supposed to be a word. Bloom ran her hand up and down his arm to soothe him.

"Riven and I are going to move you to somewhere you can lay down. I'm going to get you warmed up, too."

No response came, though Bloom hadn't exactly been expecting one. She muttered a spell and lifted Sky into her arms. He didn't quite seem to notice the difference between her holding him like that and sitting on the love seat, but he twisted around until he could bury his face into her neck. She smiled, pressed her lips to his forehead, and carried him to the couch on the other side of the living room.

Sky didn't squirm as she carried him. He didn't try to shove her away or insist that he could walk on his own. If anything, Bloom thought, that was enough indication of how he was really feeling - Sky was independent and fierce and pointedly not good at relying on other people, even if it was someone he loved and trusted. Still, as Bloom laid him down on the makeshift bed that Riven was turning the couch into, she was glad that Sky felt safe enough to relax. To let her carry him. To let her help him however she could.

Bloom straightened up and pulled the blankets over Sky's shivering body, trying to tuck them around him without hurting him as best she could. When she stood up, Sky grabbed at her arm, and Bloom took a knee. She folded her arms together on the side of the couch, just a few inches from Sky, and rested her chin on her forearms. "What's the matter?"

"W-will you st-stay - ?" Sky was interrupted by his own coughing. He kept trying to get her name out, and eventually, Bloom lifted him by the shoulders until he was sitting upright. Wrapped her left arm around his front to keep him upright, ran her free hand up and down his back to calm him. When the coughing finally subsided, Riven passed him a glass of water.

Hands shaking and entire body nowhere near still either, Sky tried to take slow sips of the water. Bloom could only imagine how long Sky had gone without anything to eat or drink - that familiar fire kicked up inside her once again, bright and angry; it was carefully extinguished, or at least put to bed for the time being, by the prince in her arms, who she wouldn't have dared leaving just to go another round with Diaspro - but he was having enough trouble keeping the glass from spilling that Bloom pulled some of her magic from the well inside her and muttered a stabilizing charm under her breath.

Sky wasn't stupid - he felt the magic, Bloom was sure. He leaned into her a little more and whispered his thanks, voice hoarse. She nodded, lifted one of her knees to brace it against the bed, and told him to take his time.

Idly, Bloom wondered where in the world Riven got the glass from, and then realized that he'd gone to get it himself. She just didn't notice his leaving or his absence.

 _Smooth move_ , she chided herself. _What if that had been someone on Diaspro's side? What if it had been Diaspro herself? You've got to pay attention._

It was unlikely, that much was true. But if Diaspro somehow managed to get herself out of wherever Stella had left her, she could be a real danger to their already exhausted team, and Sky, who's teeth were chattering mercilessly. Bloom needed to give him her attention. Still, the idea that Diaspro could return to do even more damage was not a pleasant one. Bloom couldn't do so much at once.

As if she was suddenly capable of reading minds, Musa walked over, tapped a hand on Bloom's shoulder to announce her presence. "I'll play look-out. You worry about Prince Charming." Musa didn't wait for Bloom's reply. She pivoted on her toes and magicked up a chair a few feet from the couch. It faced the door and had a decent view of the windows, so Musa had a good position to 'play look-out' from. It was also facing away from where Sky was already lying - Musa was trying to give them some privacy, then.

Bloom wasn't thinking clearly enough to thank her for it, but she really did appreciate the gesture.

Bloom bobbed her up and down once, her thoughts already back on Sky even before she turned back to him. Musa had things under control. There was no good sense in frustrating herself worrying about the security of the suite as well, especially when Musa was already on it.

"I'll take that," Riven offered when Sky finished off the water. Sky tried to move his arm to hand it over. He cried out at the movement, so Riven carefully slipped the glass from his hands. "Do you want another - ?"

Sky just shook his head. By then, the shivering had given way to shudders that came and went, and Bloom had to agree with Sky - getting him warm would have to take precedence. _We can get him more water when he isn't shivering like he's going hypothermic on us._ Riven turned to take the glass back to the kitchen.

"Sky," Bloom said, voice quiet, "is it okay if I lay down with you?"

"Mhm-hmm." Sky nodded, his cheek rubbing against Bloom's shoulder. "Pl-pl-please."

Bloom kissed his temple. She held him upright as she lifted the blankets and crawled underneath them, adjusting her arms so that she could pull him to her. Once she was sitting next to him, their sides pressed together, she leaned back against the pillows Riven set up and helped Sky lay back against her.

There was a pause as Sky relaxed. His head rested on her shoulder, his arms found their way around her, and his breath was ice cold on her neck. Their legs ended up tangled together a bit. Sky pressed himself closer to her.

"You're w-warm."

There had to be more she could do to warm him up. _But - what? How do I - ?_ Her fingers tingled as if they were trying to tell her something. _Oh, duh, of course. Why didn't I think of that sooner?_ Bloom closed her eyes and exhaled slowly, visualizing her magic seeping into the air around them. The orange-y red magic formed a cocoon around the two of them. It wasn't real - magic didn't generally take shape like that, as she'd learned in one of her early magical studies classes - but it was a good way to get one's magic to do a certain thing without a specific spell. Just like she'd imagined, even if the magic wasn't really visible outside of the image she'd conjured up in her mind, the space immediately around her and Sky began to warm. She waited until Sky sighed in relief to look down at him.

"Is that better?" Bloom was sure to keep her voice soft. She didn't want to startle him. In the minute or so before Sky finally nodded against her, she moved one of her hands to rest on Sky's bicep, which he'd thrown over her middle when they were getting settled on the couch.

Bloom ran her hand up and down his arm. She gently worked the tension from the muscles there with her fingers, taking care to avoid anywhere that seemed to be bruised or bleeding. At first, Sky remained tensed up, the muscles under her hand taut. He was still shaking even though most of the shivering had already subsided. But after a few minutes of Bloom massaging his arm, and then rubbing his back with her other hand, and drawing circles on the back of the hand he'd rested on her hip, he relaxed. His body went slack against hers.

Sky buried his face in her shoulder. "Thank you," he whispered. The words shook a little bit and he was hoarse, but relief coursed through Bloom at the sound of his voice alone. "For coming for me."

A single tear ran down Bloom's face and then into her hair. She didn't move to wipe the trail it left on her skin away, unwilling to let go of Sky as she was. She pressed a feather-light kiss to his temple. Rested her chin on the top of his head. Tightened her arms around him as much as she dared.

Her chest burned. Sky had suffered so much, had been through so much, and she hadn't even thought to question what had happened. She'd been too heartbroken to bear it, but even as the other Winx had flitted around nervously and done their best to keep her mind off of it, their opinion had been clear as day - the general consensus was that Sky had owed her an explanation. She remembered standing in Faragonda's office, feeling like she was being swallowed up by the darkness, feeling the floor fall out from underneath her. She'd been so scared, so worried, hurting for Sky - she still was, really.

How much of this could she have prevented if she'd only stopped to think? What might she have saved Sky from if she'd given him more credit, trusted him more, instead of turning into a complete disaster the second everything had gone wrong?

 _You can't think about that right now._ The voice her subconscious had drawn up to talk some sense into her was Stella's. _He needs you - you've got to keep it together._ When Bloom went to argue with that, her lack of sleep and the wearing off of fighting-induced adrenaline probably getting the better of her, Stella's voice was prepared. _Sky isn't going to blame you. How is blaming yourself while he can't even argue with you - about something that happened to him - going to help him? Or you? Or anyone else, for that matter?_

Even Bloom had to concede those points. She tucked the fear and guilt and panic from before away. It would be something she'd have to work through, but she could do that later. She had other things to attend to, namely the prince curled up against her.

"I will always, _always_ come for you," Bloom promised Sky. She traced the hand on his arm up to his face, gingerly traced her fingers around a painful-looking bruise, and then ran her hand through his hair. "I love you more than you can possibly imagine."

Sky smiled against her skin, just enough that she felt it. It was clear that he lacked the energy to speak, so he didn't, but Bloom understood what he meant all the same. It was just as if he had told her himself - _I love you, too_ , she could hear him saying. _More than you know._

"Why don't you get some sleep?" Bloom returned her hand to it's earlier position on his arm. She pulled the blankets up a little tighter around two of them before letting herself relax a bit more, hoping it would encourage Sky to do the same. "I'll be here when you wake up."

Though he said nothing to agree or disagree with the suggestion, Sky shifted against her and then went still once again. He drifted off to the quiet voices of their teammates - their family - and the warmth of Bloom's magic and the gentleness of Bloom's touch. An hour and a half later, finally sure that he was sleeping peacefully, Bloom decided to let herself do the same.

She called Musa over and explained that she'd be taking a short nap, and to wake her up if something seemed wrong with Sky, or if they got a healer upstairs to treat him. Or if anything else happened. Musa promised she would with a serious but fond smile and went back to her chair, going so far as to pulling it a bit further away so that they could sleep.

Sky was alive. He and Bloom were back together. He was safe in her arms. Everything would be okay.

Bloom drifted off to the sound of Sky's steady breathing, her cheek pressed against his hair.

He was safe. Warm. Alive. Healing already, thanks to Flora and Helia. Everything would be okay.


End file.
